Deborah Mailman

Any film by indigenous Australian director Warwick Thornton is vital to understanding aboriginal culture. His WWII-set drama The New Boy, features Cate Blanchett as a nun operating an outback orphanage. We witness a clash of cultures where the dominant white Australian belief system erodes the specificity of aboriginal culture. The central tension in the film is faith and spirituality where even those who believe they are acting in the best interests of indigenous people participate in an arrogant paternalism which denies the power of one of the oldest cultures on earth.