Deborah Mailman

Cate Blanchett is back, wearing the black habit of a nun who runs a monastery and orphanage on the Australian outback in The New Boy. Blanchett is Sister Eileen, charged with “ breeding out the Black” of young, parentless aboriginal boys and turning them towards the White man’s Christianity. She is a God-fearing woman who believes she is doing the Lord’s work, but when a new boy is dumped on her doorstep in the middle of the night, he tests the faith of everyone in the monastery.

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.