Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

A Changing Race (1964)

play May contain names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
clip
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Santa Teresa Mission

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Images of the Santa Teresa Mission in the Northern Territory in the early 1960s. Scenes include children in the classroom, on the oval and playing in the yard.

Curator’s notes

by Liz McNiven

This clip presents a number of strange images: the opening shots of small block houses, set equidistant from each other in a sparse landscape; Aboriginal children in rows monotonously chanting their spelling lesson; boys outside being drilled like soldiers; and girls reading aloud in unison. To contemporary eyes this seems draconian and yet the voice-over by an Aboriginal woman is complimentary of the Santa Teresa Mission and the discipline it instils in the children. We are left feeling unsettled about the policy of assimilation.