Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Jedda (1955)

play May contain names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
clip White baby fly out, black baby fly in education content clip 2

This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

The infant Jedda, snuggled in a coolomon, is carried into the squatters’ kitchen. Two Aboriginal women fuss over the infant, and are the ones who name her Jedda, because she’s like a 'wild Jedda bird’. The mistress of the house has just lost her own baby, and is confronted by the presence of the Aboriginal baby. The mistress eventually collapses into sobs, and the newly orphaned Jedda baby cries also.

by Romaine Moreton, Indigenous curator

The introduction of the Aboriginal infant into the squatters’ childless and barren household, is the emotional glue of this film. The loss of her own baby, and the simultaneous appearance of the Aboriginal baby – who remains an 'it’ until we hear her name many years later – is the beginning of the emotional attachment the wife eventually develops for the child.