Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Harry’s War (2000)

play May contain names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Preparing for war

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

Clip description

A young boy Keithy (Sam Kirby) runs along a dirt road screaming, ‘Djaambi! Djaambi!’. He jumps into the arms of his older cousin, Harry Saunders (David Ngoombujarra) and both roll on the ground. Harry Saunders is dressed in army greens, his mother (Christina Saunders), father (Bob Maza) and cousin (Pauline Whyman) have come to bid him farewell walking him to the train. Keithy tells Harry he has something for him, and hands him a crumpled photograph of three generations of Saunders men; Harry’s father, Harry and Keithy. A crow craws, sitting atop a sign nailed to a tree that says 'Three Waterhole Creek’. Harry walking by the crow pauses to consider the black bird. A train whistle cries in the background. Harry Saunders, Thomas Green (Glenn Shea) and Mitch (Peter Docker) walk into a bar. Mitch (Peter Docker) the only white digger is invited to have a beer, but the two Aboriginal diggers are not welcome. Harry turns to the patrons and tells them that if he can wear the uniform, he can have a beer. The publican (Terry Gill) tells Mitch he and his mates can have one beer, 'then get on your bike’. The men drink to the 2nd 14. Harry yells, ‘My shout!’, and tosses his coins onto the bar.

Curator’s notes

It is estimated that between 400 and 500 Aboriginal people served in the First World War, and over 3,000 in the Second World War, yet Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are greatly excluded from the Australian digger legend. While both Aboriginal men and women fought along side other Australian’s during the Second World War, Aboriginal people were not recognised as citizens in Australia, and social mobility and interaction restricted as in accordance with the Restriction of the Sale of Opium and Protection of Aboriginals Act from 1897 to 1971. Reg Saunders MBE was the first Aboriginal man to be promoted to commissioned rank. Faith Bandler, who enlisted in the Australian Women’s Land Army during the Second World War was also involved in the fight for Aboriginal Rights that culminated in the 1967 referendum to grant Aboriginal people rights.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Preparing for war from the short film Harry's War 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.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • 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.

All other rights reserved.

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
harryswa1_pr.mp4 Large: 22.1MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
harryswa1_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.4MB 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.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • 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.

All other rights reserved.

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: