WE ARE STILL HERE

Australia/New Zealand, 2022, 82 minutes, Colour.

Elijah-Jade Bowen, Deborah Brown, Evander Brown, Lisa Flanagan, Natasha Gorrey Furber, Audrey Martin, Leonard Matthews, Sean Munungurr, Clarence Ryan, Robert Taylor, Tioreore Ngati-Melbourne.

Directed by Chantelle Burgoyne, Dena Curtis, Richard Curtis, Mario Gaoa, Danielle MacLean, Miki Magasiva, Renaé Maihi, Tracy Rigney, Tim Worrell, Beck Cole.

A strong title. A defiant title.

And, as we would expect, a strong film, a defiant film. It opens with an animated story, two women fishing, the 18^th century, then suddenly out of the waves, the flags of Britannia, Captain Cook’s ship… And the waves overwhelming. The film progresses from here from, eight short stories interwoven, not straightforwardly told one after the other, eliciting emotions, stories of Maori tribes and fight back, defeats, tales of aboriginal men and women, trekking through the desert in the 19^th century, a lone soldier in the trenches at Gallipoli, protests on graffiti writing, the burning down of Captain Cook’s house in Fitzroy Gardens, and police oppression as aboriginal men try to buy alcohol in the Northern Territory Foodtowns. And, within this, a leap forward to 2074, post-apocalyptic misery.

This is an Australia/New Zealand co-production, with financial support from both countries and, particularly, Screen Australia and finance from most of the states and the Northern Territory. All the writers are indigenous and most of them have directed their screenplays. As might be expected, the impact of each story is quite different from the other. But it is the cumulative effect of the interweaving of the stories, protagonists becoming angrier, the audience also becoming angrier on their behalf, always challenged.

Which means then that the audience is invited to think back over the last 250 years, to Captain Cook and the issue of “terra nullius” and some of the ironies of Captain Cook’s cottage transported to Melbourne, a tourist site. We see the hostile attitudes of the whites in central Australia in the 19^th century, the automatic aggression towards “black bastards”. Maori communities and individuals, seen on the war path, local meetings to decide whether to fight the British or try to live at one with the newcomers to New Zealand.

Particularly moving, with a touch of the comic, is the lone soldier in Gallipoli, abandoned in the trenches, starving, ill, when a bag is suddenly thrown in over the barricade by a Turk, food, clothes, and the soldier tosses his clothes across leading to an amicable meeting, each in their opposite uniforms as they have to hasten back as hostilities resume.

There is passion in the Melbourne scene, paintings of Lives Matter, graffiti, some tranquility in Fitzroy Gardens, fascist groups and brutality, rebellion. And there is a sense of frustration not only for Ken, the protagonists, but for the audience watching as he buys alcohol, day after day, accosted by the Wlocal policeman, quoting law and regulations to cover his inherent racism. Interestingly, the last we see of Ken is his walking away, laughing in the face of such oppression.

There is a summary of the stories and faces at the end, to remind the audience: We Are Still Here.

1. The intention of the film? Pride and defiance? Indigenous peoples? The history in the Pacific? The status of indigenous peoples in the 19^th century, 20^th century, 21^st-century? The future?
2. New Zealand an Australian production, financial support, the writers, directing their scripts, their perspectives? A range of assertion, anger, critique, pathos, humour?
3. The structure of the film, the animation with the opening, the women fishing, the reef, Captain Cook, the ship, the flags, the consequences? The return to the Captain Cook theme with his cottage in Melbourne, tourist centre, the couple deciding to burn it down in protest? The continuity the theme with the women, the changes of the times, the reef, the building of the city, relationships, generations and children, reunited?
4. The intercutting of the various stories, the effect, leaving aspects of the plot in abeyance, dramatic stopping, new elements, returning, the emotional effect?
5. The 19^th century, central Australia, the soldier, searching for his family, the confrontation with the Elder and his family, the presumption against black pastors, racial hostility, superiority, the Elder and his confrontation, the family with their woman errors, the soldier with his gun, the older offering to help, leading, trust and mistrust, camping, exchanging names, the dangers, the Elder disappearing, the firing of the shot, continuing the journey, the scene of the massacre? And the confrontation?
6. The Maori story, the situation, the family, the mother and her wanting peaceful living together, the father agreeing, his leadership, his daughter and the preparation for a marriage, her hair, talking with her father at the slaughtering of the animal, thinking she had persuaded him? The gathering, the warlike speeches, the mother and her looks, the father and his decision, the daughter and her rebellion, challenging her father, changing his position, the warlike chance and dancing together, and the later return defeated?
7. The Anzac story, the lone soldier, the vivid portrayal of life in the trenches, reconstruction of the trenches, food, hunger, the uniforms, the touch of despair? Looking at the other lines? The bag with the food, the soldier returning it, the exchanging of uniforms, the touch of humour with his looking Turkish, going to meet the other man, the two in the uniforms, action starting again, this scurrying in each direction? Possibilities?
8. The future, 2274, post-apocalyptic, the Elder, the young girl, the dismal situations, his trying to passed on knowledge to his daughter?
9. The mother and daughter, Captain Cook’s cottage, the onset of the fascist group, the intrusive mother, her death?
10. The daughter, the graffiti, the young man, their interactions, the encounters with the police, the brutality, the protests? The decision to burn down Captain Cook’s cottage?
11. Central Australia, the intervention, the sale of alcohol, Ken, with the old man, going to the shop, ruby and her friendliness, there exchanging phone numbers? His slipping in, buying the gold, the jerky, stalked by the officer, his wanting identity, Ken not having his identity, the confiscation of the alcohol? Going back to the old man? The succeeding days, the same process, the officer and his attitude – and friendliness to other customers by contrast? The final confrontation, taking the alcohol, Ken telling him that he didn’t drink anyway, returning to the old man, and his laughing?
12. The cumulative effect of this experience, sharing the angers, sharing the defiance, compassion, and the challenge?