The documentary The Dream and the Dreaming relates the Hermannsburg’s history.
This known name evokes, for Australian art specialists, Namatjirra and the watercolour’s “school”. Nevertheless, this story begins earlier, in the 19th century. In 1877, Lutheran priests founded a Mission and named it after their original town in Germany. The difficulties to communicate with the Arrernte, main community, and their opposition to traditional practices contrasted with their action in favour of Aboriginal people and against the Cattle stations’ violence.
If I advise you this documentary, it is not for the extraordinary history of the mission but for the historical value of their resources. Of course, there are fascinating elements in this story such as the arrival of German in the desert or the spy suspicion during the World War I. But the most impressive images are the Arrernte people video from the early decades of the last century. The gaze of those people reminds us all the coming tragedies from this encounter.
The other interesting element is the contribution of both memories: on one hand the Western sources like interviews, archives, books, and images, and on the other hand the Aboriginal point of view. Those persons do not only narrate these events and evoke their memories but sometimes dear to have a critical point of view. To conclude, the documentary’s quality resides in its plurivocal dimension.
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The Dream and the Dreaming, 2003, produced by ATOM and distributed by ABC.