One of the key things I’ve noticed over the past four weeks of Understanding Communication is steadily changing depiction and representation of indigenous Australians in the media.
Since European colonisation the perspective of indigenous peoples and culture has been almost exclusively through a European lens, which has led to some vast misrepresentations over the past two centuries. Since the 1967 referendum to recognise them as citizens and the repealing of Terra nullius in 1992, however, the representation of indigenous Australians has been increasingly seen from their perspective, which can ultimately lead to a much fairer perspective of issues that affects them and their communities.
Redfern Now, a television series that is broadcast on the ABC, is considered an important drama series because of this. It is not only performed and written by members of the indigenous community, but offers a non-European perspective of living in present-day Redfern. The episodes of the series cover a wide range of topics but Episode 6 I felt to be most important, as it dealt with the issue of deaths in police custody when a young man dies of internal injuries in a holding cell.
The issue has been officially acknowledged since at least 1987, when the four-year Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was established, but while it concluded in 1991 by stating that police violence was not a factor in these deaths over 269 have occurred since then. Redfern Now shows not only the immediate investigation of such an event, but also the way that the man’s family and his community are affected – the perspective it provides is important as it is not detached from the situation, but placed directly into the fallout as it occurs.
Bibliography:
Morton-Thomas, Patricia; “My Family Is Calling For Justice” (2012, https://newmatilda.com/2012/12/06/my-family-calling-justice)
“Redfern Now: Pretty Boy Blue (S1E6)”, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2012)
Jakubowicz, Andrew, “Week 6 Indigenous Communication” (Lecture, University of Technology Sydney 2013)
Jack's UTS Blog 