Just a note to anyone who is interested, and who obviously have no other life whatsoever, that I suggest either you buy yourself a cat, or head over to this page that I’ve finally completed. It contains a 1000-word summery of my thesis, and a table of contents. There is a form at the bottom to fill out if you’d like to grab yourself a copy of any of the sections. Some sections of my blog are embargoed for publication, so won’t be available online for some time.
I’m not going to buy a cat, because I already iz da flava. But I will be sleeping for a few months, and maybe making a quilt, or joining the Quaker movement, or just mucking around on my Playstation.
These past four years I have received much from many people around me. The opportunity to research and write at RMIT’s School of Media and Communications has been a gift for which I will never be sufficiently grateful, that has sustained me and transformed me. I see only that the future it has created will be a series of chances to carry the favour forward.
To the fellows and the committee of the Porticus Fellowship into Media, Religion and Culture, thank you for your continuing support and encouragement. On many occasions you reminded me that I was worth this opportunity. In you I have found a network of friends that spans the planet. Stewart Hoover, Lynn Clark, Adàn Medrano, Jolyon Mitchell, David Morgan and Mary Hess, you have humbled me with your generous support, and have always allowed me to be myself. Particular thanks go to Milja Radovic, Africanus Diedong, Juan Carlos Enriquez and Patricia Bustamante, with whom I have shared everything and whom I consider my global brothers and sisters.
Back home, Adrian Miles and Jenny Weight helped me not just prepare for good research, but introduced me to the principles of fine academia. Thank you for the smiles you maintained while you pushed me, even if I refused to smile back at times.
Spending time inside the mind of Peter Horsfield is a rare and precious privilege. I am happy to stay as his Kimosabe and his Grasshopper for as long as he would like one. Peter is a sage.
Due to the generosity of the Porticus Fellowship, this researcher has been able to present his work all over the world. I am grateful for the friends of have made there, who have supported me in my studies and at presentations. Mia Lövheim, Mark Johns and Chris Helland deserve more than a mention here. Above all, Heidi Campbell has kept herself in close communicado through the years, and has been a deep well of both academic information and personal wisdom. More than that, she has been a best mate.
Dad and Mum, you were babysitters, taxi drivers, bank accounts, and the best parents possible during this time. Thank you.
Megan and AJ, I thank you for letting me be a mediocre father these past four years. I look forward to a lifetime of making it up to you. You were too young for me to expect to have your support, but you never complained. And Kate, my best friend, who has sacrificed more than anyone so I can pursue this dream, may I say that your worst friend loves you for it.
Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the emerging church bloggers that I’ve followed since 2006, way back when blogging was even cooler than Facebook. I thank you for following me in return, offering your opinions, advice and support for my researching you. (Matt and Linzc, my face still beams when I remember how we were flirty-fished in Parramatta). You all are prophets, risk takers, carers and comedians. It has been a pleasure getting to know you all, both online and offline.
Stumbled across this just now. New data (with some sources cited, but not many), on the Internet in the US and for the rest of us, from the end of 2009:
An adaptation of the musical that endeavours to honour the previous genre, this film intends neither to arouse pathos over Australia’s dark history, nor make light humour of it. And yet this story excels in both exploring the Church’s complicity in creating institutionalised racism in Australia’s past (and present), and seeking an Australian spirit.
But I must tell you about the comedy. To describe it in one word: Australian. To expand: irreverent, misplaced, a little off-the-wall and most notable in the faces of the characters than in their words of actions. Truly Brand Nue Dae is a comic masterpiece. If you want to know what good Aussie humour is like, this is it. The movie is willing to forego high production values, superb acting, brilliant cinematography (that we audiences demand after James Cameron and Jane Campion started making movies) in order to bring you characters you want to connect with. It succeeds to the point that you forgive the makers for not making a “fine piece of cinema”.
As all good musicals do, and all “good movies” fail to do, this story seeks the redemption of all people, celebrates the possibility of reconciliation in culture, and refuses to judge the good and bad in our history. It attests that white religion has something to say for its part in the subjugation of indigenous, but at the same time recognises that the Church, as other Western institutions, can be forgiven for this. It points to the effects of racism in Australia’s education system, police system, etc., while at the same time acknowledges there is truth somewhere in the stereotypes that Aborigines carry. Every character is heavily flawed, inherently worthy of love, and capable of turning their loves around.
Maybe I’m tired from staying up late, but this was the movie that made me laugh when I was crying.
