GC Wk5 Watch Video: Babakiueria [Australia] (30 min.)

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES:

• • • • This video relates to following learning objectives/outcomes.

TASKS:

• • • • "A satirical alternative history of Australia since 1788, depicting what it might have been like for the European indigenous population of Australia, if Aboriginal colonial culture had arrived with the First Fleet and assumed a dominant position."

        "In 1988 Australia celebrated the 200th Anniversary of white European settlement in Australia. Babakiueria is a lighthearted satire that reverses the roles, imagining what it would be like if a fleet arrived to try and settle an area inhabited by white natives. A short, effective drama that features role reversal in which Aboriginal Australians change places with the historically dominant white Australians. Excellent discussion starter as it promotes an awareness of the attitudes and injustices that have been endured by black Australians." UP

        "Another classic film. It examines black-white relations in the land of Babakiueria. This wry mockumentary examines the plight of the oppressed white minority who, having been dispossessed of their land, must obey the laws and customs of the black majority." -- Green Left Weekly Australia's radical weekly newspaper

        "The film Babakiueria shows how aborigines are represented in society through taking a sarcastic look at racial stereotypes, the stereotypes are reduced to absurdity when the roles of whites and blacks in society are reversed. By doing this, the film draws the attention of not only white attitudes towards aboriginals but also towards themselves. Aborigines who have watched this film state that it was a good film as it did represent the truth about how they are politically represented, but it could have been better if it was written by an aboriginal instead of a white person, as they would have presented the film using Aboriginal culture instead of using the whites' controlling methods of a society." MOS

        
        Discover how well-done satire can be used to effectively carry important messages.
        
        
      • Learn about problems common to industrialized countries worldwide, and how there is an EMIC viewpoint to them (looking at things from the insiders' points of view), and an ETIC viewpoint (looking at things from the outsiders' points of view). Be aware that the two points of view can be quite contrary (cases where two or more things are different and can be true at the same time), and even contradictory (cases where two or more cannot be true at the same time).
        
        
        • Also be aware of and understand the classical "The Rashomon Effect" --where there are several different contradictory cases and each is true from the point of view of its beholder (Review from Week 1).
          
          
      • Write down questions you have as they come up (that is take "fieldnotes" and do "freelisting").
        
        
        • Information on WRITING: Freelisting
          
          

CRITERIA:

• • • Grading Note: You will receive points for submitting a question for the exam later in week 5 within the Submit Midterm Exam Question Discussion.
      
      
    • And the Midterm Exam Question Pool will contain at least one question on this video.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

• • • A Note on Videos and Visual Anthropology