The return of the noble savage by popular demand : a study of Aboriginal television documentary in Australia

Abstract

This thesis, entitled The Return of the Noble Savage: By Popular Demand, is written after several years of being an avid Aboriginal television watcher, filmmaker, and activist. It is based on research on a neglected topic and in response to the consistent attack from well-meaning critics, in an attempt to argue for the complexity of the meanings generated on television, and for the rights of the individual filmmaker in representation. In myth-making about Australian Aborigines there has been a consistent paradigm of opposing poles-noble and savage, good blacks and bad blacks, primitive and civilised, real and unreal. Oscillating between these two poles are all kinds of imaginings of Aboriginal identity, politics and desires for truthful representation. When early documentary filmmakers began to film Aborigines they disregarded the Aboriginal audience, and spoke rather to themselves and to white audiences whom, for all kinds of reasons, they wanted to inform about Aborigines. In contrast, there are in the Australian television industry today many more Aboriginal people making films than there have ever been, and a greater recognition of the existence of Aboriginal television audiences. Aboriginal filmmakers have been backed by a history of radical politics and by the efforts of non-Aboriginal filmmakers. The recent marriage between Aboriginal filmmakers and mainstream television has been neglected by most commentators and scholars. Critics ignore the efforts and progress made by mainstream television and documentary filmmakers. They have written about television without making references to Aborigines; and they have written about Aborigines without making reference to television. This is startling when one considers the invisibility of Aborigines before television, and the difference television has made. The thesis also addresses the problem that in the current climate, new pressures being brought to bear on filmmakers making documentary films on Aboriginal topics. Because they do not take into account the nature of filmmaking, or the rights of individual filmmakers, these pressures are infringing upon the rights not only of white but also Aboriginal filmmakers. This pressure has swung the pendulum from savage to noble imagery, the latter of which is just as unrealistic and untrue as the former. It also requires Aboriginal audiences and filmmakers to protect and uphold a particular vision of Aboriginality, and denies them the right to critique and defend themselves.