REVIEW BY ALISON DELLIT
Yolngu Boy
With Sean Mununggur, John Sebastian Pilakui and Nathan Daniels
Directed by Stephen Johnson
At major cinemas
Yolngu Boy is better than most "teen" flicks. Set and filmed in the remote Aboriginal communities of Arnhem Land, the film is a world away from US white suburban crap.
The story-line is simple. Having grown up together, Milika, Botj and Lorrpu are now 14. Milika and Lorrpu have been chosen by the tribal leaders to undergo the final stage of learning Aboriginal law, prior to being accepted as adult members of the community.
Botj, on the other hand, has just got out of jail and is "on trial" in the eyes of the leaders. He is battling an addiction to petrol sniffing. He feels rejected by the community. After Botj goes on a drug-fuelled bout of vandalism and again faces jail, the boys decide to run to Darwin to seek help from Dawu, a tribal leader. Their journey is the main subject of the film.
The film, funded and produced by the Australian Children's Television Foundation, is groundbreaking in its portrayal of an Aboriginal community. Unlike most widely distributed films with Aboriginal characters, the film does not rely on interaction with white characters to explain Aboriginal culture.
Stephen Johnson uses exquisitely delicate direction to draw out the attempts of the boys to reconcile the expectations of the community with their loyalty to each other and their aspirations. In the process, the complexity of Aboriginal society is drawn out in a non-patronising and involving way. For this alone, the film is worth seeing.
The three main actors, all 15-year-olds, give compelling and watchable performances. Johnson's decision to recruit the actors from local communities, instead of seeking professional actors, has paid off. The young actors' feat is all the more remarkable given the decision to film in English, which was the second language of all three. Sean Mununggur, as the angry and confused Botj, is particularly good.
Johnson's love of Arnhem Land and respect for the culture of the Aboriginal people is clear. The scenes of the boys' initiation are stunning, as are the panoramas of the region. The musical score switches effortlessly, almost unnoticed, between songs by Regurgitator, Yothu Yindi and traditional Yolngu songs. Unusually amongst recent films, it enhances rather than competes with the story.
The main problem with the film is the absence of a context for the problems that the community faces. There is no question that Johnson believes that racism causes many of the social problems. In the media kit, he speaks of "indirect genocide". But while problems such as alcoholism, drug abuse and domestic violence are shown in the film, the cause of these social problems — lack of control over land, poor school resourcing, no job opportunities and government attacks on indigenous rights — are not shown or referred to.
Reinforcing this is the fact that the only urban Aborigines in the film are alcoholics. It is implied by one of the characters that if Botj stays in Darwin he will end up destitute and an alcoholic like his father.
Given the racism of Australian society, where Aboriginal people are frequently blamed for the social problems in their communities, the fact that the film shows only problems and not the causes is a problem. Because of this, the film does not challenge the idea that Aborigines are best off in their own communities, following their own customs. Worse, it indirectly supports the common view that the social problems that confront Aboriginal people are caused by the clash between the "old" world and the "new", rather than by years of racist policy, dispossession and underfunding of health and education services.
Unfortunately, the publicity for the film pitches the story in these terms, arguing that what confronts the boys is the choice between modern youth culture and the "old" ways.
In an era of political censorship of the ABC, and with SBS under attack, it is not surprising that the film dodges the big questions.