Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Heritage (1935)

A video which normally appears on this page did not load because the Flash plug-in was not found on your computer. You can download and install the free Flash plug-in then view the video. Or you can view the same video as a downloadable MP4 file without installing the Flash plug-in.

Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Settlers attacked education content clip 3

Original classification rating: G. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Morrison (Franklyn Bennett) has married Jane Judd (Margot Rhys) because of a promise he made before he met Biddy O’Shea. Biddy has also married, and both women have had a baby. When Aborigines attack and kill her family, the fatally wounded Biddy (Peggy Maguire) asks Morrison to rescue and care for her child.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

The scene could have come straight from an American western, except for the black skin of the Aborigines, and the bark-slab hut construction of the farm house. Chauvel had grown up around Aboriginal people and he used Aboriginal actors in many of his films, often to provide action in scenes of warfare (see Uncivilised [1936]). It is true that their concerns became more central to his films as he developed as a film-maker. He would eventually make Jedda (1955), the first Australian feature film in which two Aboriginal actors would play the main roles. Their presence in Heritage is to provide a sense of action and opposition. The film never considers the question of why these blacks might want to attack settlers on their land; that was a given. The point of view of Indigenous Australians is almost never discussed in Australian films before the Second World War.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Settlers attacked from the feature film Heritage as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions. All rights are reserved.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • Where permitted, you may embed materials for your personal or non-commercial educational use only.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
heritage2_pr.mp4 Large: 22.8MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
heritage2_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.7MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions. All rights are reserved.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • Where permitted, you may embed materials for your personal or non-commercial educational use only.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: