Roundtable: Message from Mungo and the Scales of Memory

Abstract

Ann McGrath and Andrew Pike's recent documentary film Message from Mungo implicitly addresses several dimensions of the concept of ‘scales of memory’, including the ‘deep time’ of Aboriginal habitation of the land, transnational and national science in tension with local Aboriginal knowledge and presence, and justice, power and authority. We invited Ann McGrath to introduce and show her film as part of the conference program, and we asked literary scholar and author Jeanine Leane, who comes from Wiradjuri Country in south-west New South Wales to respond. The film screening and Jeanine’s deeply felt and thoughtful response prompted an intense discussion. We were keen to represent that previously unrecorded discussion in this Special Issue, so we later invited a few of the participants to reconvene to discuss the film again and to revisit some of the issues that had been raised. We recorded that session and the following is drawn from it.