Jedda

Jedda

Charles Chauvel

 

Jedda is a monumental film in Australian film history. It was the first Australian film in colour and the first time an aboriginal woman was displayed as the main character on screen. Thus even before my screening I knew of the film and its prowess.

 

These days it is a bit slow to watch, but it is interesting to see how the Aboriginal population is displayed in film, as opposed to recent films such as Rabbit Proof Fence and Ten Canoes.

 

Jedda follows a young girls who’s mother dies on an Australian station and is raised my the station owners wife Sarah. Jedda is in a way an outcast unable to access her natural culture yet excluded from the one she is trying to be accepted into.

 

I liked Jedda because for its time it was exploring Australia’s culture further than any Australian filmmaker had so far, into our Aboriginal culture.

 

It is interesting to see how influential her character is in the film. I was also interested that the film had to be a tragedy, it seemed that both Jedda while she was displayed her position was spoken about in the community. He mother says, “You’re no more one of them than night is day” but Jedda’s opinion and point of view is never investigated.

 

I also wondered in the context of the films release, why the film had to be a tragedy where Marbuk ends up pulling Jedda over the cliff. Was it needed in that time for the unnatural to be destroyed for people to be able to handle the film or was it simply part of the plot. Would it have the same ending if Jedda was white? Who knows but it is interesting to think about.