Australian Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows a group of adults participating in a Reconciliation Learning Circle in Sydney, New South Wales. The first scene shows members of the Learning Circle discussing the issue of Native Title. Following this, four group members – Sandy, Hugh, Lee and Darren – not only reveal what they feel they have learned during their participation in the Reconciliation Learning Circle but also provide personal opinions about some fellow group members.

Educational value points

• The clip demonstrates how discussion and debate in a Learning Circle initiated by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation increased the participants’ knowledge and understanding of issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Learning Circle also provided participants with a sense of community, valuable personal connections and support in speaking out about issues affecting Indigenous Australians.

• The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation initiated the Reconciliation Learning Circles, demonstrated in the clip, across Australia in 1991. The aim of these adult study groups was to improve relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was disbanded in December 2000 and Reconciliation Australia, an independent foundation for Reconciliation, was established.

• According to Reconciliation Australia, ‘Reconciliation involves symbolic recognition of the honoured place of the first Australians, as well as practical measures to address the disadvantage experienced by Indigenous people in health, employment, education and general opportunity’ (http://www.reconciliation.org.au).

• In the clip, land rights and Native Title are referred to as part of the same discussion but in fact they are distinct from each other. The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 provides for Indigenous peoples in NT to claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. Under the federal Native Title Act 1993, Native Title ‘means the communal, group or individual rights and interests of Aboriginal peoples or Torres Strait Islanders in relation to land or waters’ (www.nntt.gov.au).

• Learning Circles, one of which is shown here, originated in Scandinavia in the early 1900s with the aim of creating an environment in which constructive democratic dialogue on a particular issue could take place. Rather than using trained teachers or experts they use a neutral facilitator, who may be a member of the group or someone provided by the organisation that has arranged the Learning Circle. Groups are generally limited to 15 participants.

• The observational style of filmmaking, an example of which is shown here, records people’s lives with minimal intervention from the producers of the film. Without explaining or providing an opinion about what is seen the filmmaker, Rachel Landers, invites the viewer to interpret for themselves the activity of the people they are watching on screen.

• The clip is taken from Whiteys Like Us (1999), a documentary filmed in Sydney that follows 15 non-Indigenous Australians participating in an eight-week Aboriginal Reconciliation Learning Circle. Written and directed by Rachel Landers the film was awarded the United Nations Media Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 1999 and was aired nationally on Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in the same year.