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John Safran vs God – Episode 2 (2004)

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clip Land rights

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

Clip description

John Safran identifies a tendency among left-wing people in inner Melbourne to put signs on their houses acknowledging the Wurundjeri people as the traditional owners of the land. He gets a group of local Aboriginal people (Lou Bennet, Corleen Cooper, Dennis Fisher, Jermaine Hampton, Michael Penrith) to help him test the sincerity of this sentiment.

Curator’s notes

by Kate Matthews

While this sketch is linked with the show’s topic of religion via the importance of land in Aboriginal beliefs, it also takes a dig at left-wing belief systems. They are a recurring target of Safran’s, in part because this means a direct swipe at his own audience, which he describes elsewhere in the show as consisting mainly of ‘left-wing pinkos’. This sharp bit of satire poses a question about the sincerity of symbolic gestures such as these ‘traditional land owners’ signs and whether they are a tokenistic substitute for real action.

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  • 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.

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