Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Norman Hayes Jagamarra driving through the country around Coober Pedy, recalling when he and the old people hunted kangaroo and searched for opal, a time he describes as being ‘before grog’. A long tracking shot of the township of Coober Pedy filmed from a moving car has a voice-over of Jagamarra talking about the introduction of alcohol when the pub opened in 1966. Jagamarra’s narration is in Aboriginal English and accompanied by English subtitles and nostalgic music.

Educational value points

• Norman Hayes Jagamarra describes the social responsibilities in his community as he recalls hunting and bringing food for the ‘old people’ and the changes that took place when alcohol was introduced into Coober Pedy. Now when his friends in town ask him for money he reluctantly gives it to ‘make them happy’. The sharing of food, cash and shelter are complex social interactions generally considered the norm among Indigenous kinship groups.

• In this clip director and writer Warwick Thornton presents a point of view that associates the effects of alcohol with the sense of loss of purpose among some Aboriginal people. Jagamarra’s narration describes the negative influence of alcohol on the local community when he says that Aboriginal people used to work at finding opal ‘before grog’.

• The editing of this sequence starkly illustrates the contrast between the past and more recent times as described by Jagamarra. The opening scene of the abandoned vehicle, the hand sifting the earth, along with the nostalgic music and Jagamarra’s narration convey a sense of the past. The abrupt edit to Jagamarra in a vast landscape, saying ‘That’s all before grog’, and the cut to the main street of Coober Pedy reflect the shift in his narration to recent times.

• The emblematic images of the car in this clip reflect an important characteristic of Indigenous communities in which the car is often used for communal purposes. The montage of shots of the rusted abandoned Holden utility set the tone and scene for Jagamarra’s stories about ‘old car, old people’. He talks of the times they hunted kangaroo when, occasionally, they would use the car they were driving to kill the kangaroo they were chasing.

• In the film The Old Man and the Inland Sea, from which this clip is taken, Jagamarra speaks in Aboriginal English. As well as being integral to identity, Aboriginal English is an important form of communication for many Aboriginal people. Aboriginal English is a recognised dialect of English. Its form and structure incorporate words and language structures from English and from traditional Aboriginal languages.

• Coober Pedy in the far north of South Australia was established in 1915 when opal was discovered on the traditional lands of the Muntunjarra and the Antakirinja peoples. As illustrated in this clip, opal mining has resulted in damage to the landscape, which is littered with thousands of holes and mullock heaps.