Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

My Mother’s Country Part 2 (2001)

play May contain names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
clip Burial education content clip 1

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Voice-over narration tells us that it is here the dead were buried – right here. Images of ghost gums fill the screen. The narration emphasises through repetition that it is 'here’ the people were buried. The ghost gums they say have grown from the spirits of the dead, and the screen is filled with ghost gum after ghost gum.

Curator’s notes

This is the very place the people were buried, and they have now become ghost gums, and still languish in the place in which they were slain in their human form. This is a powerful moment in the film and the family wants us to know that it is 'here’ the bodies were buried. The slain are now the ghost gums that have grown in the very place the dead were buried, and the ghost gums we see are people. Will you ever look at a ghost gum the same again?