HIGH GROUND

Australia, 2020, 110 minutes, Colour.
Jacob Junior Nayinggui, Sean Mununggur, Guruwuk Munungurr, Simon Baker, Jack Thompson, Callum Mulvey, Karen Pistorius, Ryan Corr, Aaron Pedersen, David Field, John Brumpton.
Directed by Stephen Maxwell Johnson.


A number of years ago, 2001, director Stephen Maxwell Johnson made a film with an aboriginal theme, Yolngu Boy. High Ground or ambitious film. It continues the challenge, dramatised in a number of films, especially Sweet Country, for honestly examining the life of the indigenous people of Australia after 1788, acknowledging the oppression, the massacres, the exploitation.

The first part of this film is set in 1919, the aftermath of World War I, where aboriginal soldiers served. The action, however, is in Arnhem Land, and the scenery of Arnhem Land is sweepingly beautiful, along with the flora and fauna, many birds, reminding audiences of the links between the aborigines and the land, the various totems.

We are introduced to a group of aboriginal people, rituals, paint and dancing, preparations and execution of the hunt. However, we are also introduced to white trackers who are pursuing the group. With the attack, a number of the pursuers are speared, many of the aborigines are shot – and a young boy, nephew of the leader, is cared for by the women and hidden under water with a reed for him to breathe.

One of the pursuers is Travis, played by Simon Baker, a crack sniper from the war who has an overview of the attack but is not immediate party to the killings. In fact, he rescues the boy from the water and takes him back to the local mission where he is cared for by the pastor and his sister (Ryan Corr and Karen Pistorius), the pastor invited to come with the attacking party and dismayed by the events. The massacre is covered up by the authorities.

The transition in the narrative moves to 1931. The mission continues. The young boy has grown up and is now called Tommy (Jacob Junior Nayinggui). It seems inevitable that he will be caught up in further tracking and police action.

The white group, presided over by the chief, Moran, played by Jack Thompson, is led by a man, consumed with anger, some guilt, racist, who participated in the 1919 attack, Eddy (Callan Mulvey). Also present is Moran’s brash and inexperienced nephew. News has come that there has been at attack by an aboriginal gang and a white woman has been killed. Travis is also present.

There are quite some emotional complexities amongst the white people. Tommy is to go with Travis and to find the group and help call some kind of meeting for justice if not for reconciliation. Tommy is using Travis. Travis is using Tommy for bait. There is some bonding between the two but Travis is taken prisoner, the grandfather and some of the warriors come to the mission and a meeting is held – ultimately to little avail.

Once again, there is confrontation, spears and bullets, many deaths.

The effect of this dramatising of the conflicts between white and black, the experiences of injustice, harshness of racism and vengeance, continue to be a challenge for a contemporary audience – and an invitation to honesty, retrospective acceptance of the facts of racism and violence.

1. Australian history? Aborigines? The long time in the land, belonging to the land? The later settlers, racial tensions? The role of the authorities and law?

2. A fictional story – based on many realities? The impact for aborigines, for the wider Australian audience, overseas audiences?

3. 1919 and 1931, racial attitudes, the immediate post-war time, the beginning of the 1930s? Life in Arnhem Land? Tribal? The role of the police, the settlers? The role of the Church? Aboriginal chants? The musical score?

4. The visual impact, the beauty and range of Arnhem Land scenery, the animals and birds, reminders of aboriginal symbols and totems?

5. The opening, the aborigines, painting, sense of community, celebration, dance, young and old, the hunt, the boy mistaking hitting the wallaby, but his being consoled? The uncle, his leadership, skills? The nephew, young, his being encouraged by his uncle?

6. The police, their motivations, pursuits, prejudice, racial attitudes, hostility? The confrontation with the aborigines, the battle?

7. Travis, his experience of the war, sniper? Eddy, severe, prejudices? The other members of the trip? The shooting of the aborigines, impersonal and callous, the shootings, deaths by spear? Travis and his reaction?

8. The boy, the women helping him, underwater with the reed? Travis rescuing him, taking him to the mission? Travis and his sympathy for the aborigines? The effect of the massacre, aboriginal memories, the pastor of the church present and dismayed, the police chief and his attitude, the cover-up?

9. Church, Braddock and his sermon, his service of the people? Claire, his sister, helping him? The aboriginal women in the dresses? The young boy becoming Tommy and his work at the mission, the details of life at the mission? Claire becoming a substitute mother for Tommy?

10. News of the aboriginal raids, the killing a white woman, the aboriginal gang, Baywara and his leadership, the woman warrior, the old grandfather and his attitude? Moran, coming to the mission, the plan for an expedition against the aborigines, meeting Tommy, bringing his nephew with him?

11. The attitudes of the men, Moran, the king, the laws, his loyalty, Justice? Eddy, his racism and vengeance from the past? Moran’s
nephew and his attitudes, brash young man? Wanting to recruit Tommy?

12. The old man, the leadership of the group, the gathering, Tommy going out, Travis with him, leading the group in, Moran presiding, the case of the hearing? The disagreement about law and interpretation?

13. The group, gathering, their life, the swimming?

14. Tommy and his using Travis as bait? Travis wanting to use Tommy? The journey together, their being observed? The bond between the two?

15. The being caught, the aboriginal leaders, Tommy and his role, identifying with the group, painting himself, clothes? Sharing in the plans and the attack? Travis as prisoner? The return?

16. The incident of the settlers, raping the woman, her bashing them to death?

17. The case collapsing, the battle once again between black and white, Travis and his being wounded? Tommy joining in the action?

18. The buildup to the confrontation, Eddy and his role, Moran being shot, Eddy trying to kill Tommy and Travis taking the shot and
dying?

19. While the scenery is beautiful and the symbolism important, this is a sad, even tragic, reminder of the plight of the aborigines, the incursions of the whites, deaths and resentments. The need for reconciliation and healing?