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Clip description
Images of skulls and physiognomies of Indigenous peoples are treated as scientific specimens and data.
Curator’s notes
The voice-over describes how Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was used to declare the Indigenous peoples of Australia to be inferior to Europeans. Footage of drawings and photographs show the measurement of Indigenous bodies (physical anthropology) which dehumanised Indigenous peoples. Although the historic material in this clip may be disturbing to a contemporary audience, the popular idea of the time that the clip describes, that Indigenous peoples would one day no longer exist as the result of the march of civilisation, is an idea that can still be found in some parts of Australian society.
This clip features photographs of Indigenous faces under a narration that is shocking in its barbarity (including period quotes from writings of early settlers that label Indigenous Australians 'essentially a treacherous animal’ and a 'savage and inferior race’). Focusing on individual faces effectively humanises Indigenous Australians and is in sharp contrast to the cruel generalisations in the voice-overs. This clever juxtaposition of photos of Aboriginal men locked in neck chains while the narration describes them as barbarian savages knowingly exposes the hypocrisy, revealing that the actual barbarian behaviour is that of the white settlers. It makes for a sobering and powerful condemnation of popular views of the time and of how Australian history itself is portrayed.
