Kanyini

Synopsis

KANYINI is a story told by an Aboriginal man, Bob Randall, who lives beside the greatest monolith in the world, Uluru in Central Australia. Based on Bob's own personal journey and the wisdom he learnt from the old people living in the bush, Bob tells the tale of why Indigenous people are now struggling in a modern world and what needs to be done for Indigenous people to move forward. A tale of Indigenous wisdom clashing against materialist notions of progress, this is not only a story of one man and his people but the story of the human race.

Impact

Personal Statement written by Melanie Hogan.

PART ONE – the Making of Kanyini

In late 2003 a tourist travelling in Australia once said to me, “You’re just like most Australians, you know next to nothing about the history of your own country and the plight of the Aboriginal people.”

Thus the first seed for ‘Kanyini’ was planted and I became engrossed in Australian history. The results of my research horrified me. Massacres of Indigenous people and a generation stolen from their parents were just some of the wrongs that leapt out from the pages. I also soon realised that I did not have one Aboriginal friend. I wanted to rectify this.

One of the first people I wished to meet was an Aboriginal leader named Bob Randall. During my research I came across his revelatory book entitled “Songman”. Here was an Aboriginal man, articulate in the ways of my world but also strong in the traditions of his own. His wisdom I thought had the potential to unite Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia.

I contacted Bob in 2004 via his publisher and he warmly invited me to his home beside Uluru. Within an hour of my arrival, I was listening to his songs of sadness and hope and his explanation of ‘Kanyini’. I felt very blessed learning from him face to face and had no intention of making a film at all.

It was rather unexpected therefore, when Bob, upon discovering I had studied at NIDA asked me to make a petrol sniffing education film (“Petrol Wiya”) for the community.

“Just ask the kids why they’re sniffing petrol, we need to understand why they’re doing it,” was Bob’s instruction. When I first met the kids I realised how difficult it was going to be – I couldn’t speak Pitjantjatjara and they had limited English. I learnt words such Oolani (sad) and Kurunpa (spirit) to help create a bridge.

The kids were bored and lonely. There was nothing to do but sniff petrol. I could feel a deep depression in the community. I asked Bob why many of his people were sick and some so destructive at that time. (The community, since then, is so quiet now).

Why was there so much poverty when people in the cities were told that Aboriginal people were given so much money? Bob said, “It’s a long story, when you have time, I’ll tell you.” I had time. I also had many questions. By the end of my first visit I had over twenty hours of footage.

When I returned home I taught myself how to edit in order to complete “Petrol Wiya”. Once that was done, however, I realised I needed to help Bob convey his wisdom to others. I knew that if Australians were given access to this side of Aboriginal Australia, perhaps two centuries of non-communication between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples could be turned around. Bob, with his inexhaustible resources of energy was excited by the idea of making a film together. “Negative attitudes are the hardest thing to change in this world”, he would often say.

I interviewed Bob for hours, in the desert and at my home. I walked with my cameraman through Bob’s community and his mother’s country, trying to understand his perspective. There was no script for the documentary – I simply listed bullet points for each topic to be covered by Bob in his own deep and heartfelt words.

In total there were over twenty drafts of ‘Kanyini’ over an eight-month period. I attribute that to my total lack of experience in editing and the fact that I was totally obsessed with ensuring Australia experienced what I had experienced with Bob. We had no funding from anybody. We wanted to make sure that no-one rushed us. The editing process itself was lonely and tough as no one I knew really understood why I was making the documentary. There were however, many guardian angels along the way. David Page allowed me to use music he had composed, Sam Petty designed professional sound on our tiny budget, George Negus lent the film his full support upon viewing the penultimate draft and Lynda House became the executive producer.

Within a month of completing the final draft I had a distribution contract from Hopscotch in my hand – a dream come true! Funding of the Print and Advertising Budget was the next hurdle. Hopscotch could only invest a certain amount given the film was an unknown proposition. I therefore had to find private sponsors to top up the Print and Advertising Budget.

PART TWO – Kanyini Goes to the Cinema

The first point of call was Macquarie Bank. I met with the Macquarie Indigenous Development Fund. Within five minutes the fund wished to support the film through sponsorship. We were on our way and faster than I thought we would be.

I started to contact other philanthropic groups in the hope they'd follow in Macquarie's footsteps. I received many knock backs but one Friday afternoon I received a magical phone call. The Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation called up and said that they had heard about the film and wanted to be a sponsor. They felt their logo on the film would also let other people know that they had a funding source available to assist Aboriginal projects. It was a win-win situation.

So within about 3 weeks we had raised our P&A budget of $50,000 (topped up by Hopscotch of course). We then needed to find money to cover the deferred costs -such as the composer's and the sound designer's fee. At that time, a wonderful lawyer from Allens sent me an article about the GPT group and their concern for Bob's community of Mutitjulu. The GPT group was the company behind the tourist resorts on the other side of Uluru. I discovered that I knew the Chairman of the board and spoke to him at some length on the phone after he watched the film. He was very supportive of Kanyini and thought it was wonderful. He put me in contact with the managing director of the GPT group to cover the rest of the deferred costs. I explained to the managing director the wish of Uncle Bob and myself not to be divisive in our film. We spoke of fostering the idea that we all have to work together – the hotel groups, the government and Australian Individuals, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. The managing director agreed with this reasoning and after watching the film agreed to cover the remainder of our deferred costs. This act of the GPT group was an act that sealed their wish for Mutitjulu to become a healthy, happy community. It couldn't have been a better outcome. Uncle Bob was particularly happy.

Another portion of funding came from the Northern Territory Film Office. Their grant helped to cover some of the post-production costs Bob and I couldn’t cover at that time. Given the office had a very small amount of grant money available we were very grateful when they thought of assisting us.

Here are some responses from the film:

Anyone coming cold to the story of Australia's Indigenous disgrace will no longer be ignorant after seeing this beautifully shot film and hearing Uncle Bob tell it the way it is, with such personal passion, political insight, incredible lucidity, dignity and somehow even humour - George Negus

My wish...that everyone go see this film. Uncle Bob just tells it like it is. Simply, beautifully and with a light heart. A special film that tells an "open truth" that should have been told a very long time ago. - Deborah Mailman

On an issue so fraught with guilt and regret, it is wonderfully refreshing to hear Uncle Bob's clear, simple and very important message. It comes from a very generous and patient heart and offers a positive direction for us all to take. Could someone give him the PM's home phone number? - Claudia Karvan

Throughout the film I felt a number of different emotions including a deep sadness, anger, shame and guilt but I liked how ultimately the film acted as a message of hope and possibility for better relations in the future between white and black Australians. I really connected with the idea that to move forward, as a society we have to totally accept our history honestly and then learn from each other - it can no longer be one sided and about integrating one culture into the other. It has to be a merge of two cultures in order to gain that sense of respect and peace that has so far eluded us. - A cinema goer from the website’s official forum

Without the generous support of the private sector Kanyini would never have seen the light of day…but the cinema release was just the start. Uncle Bob’s and my overall dream was to ensure that every Australian school child would have a chance to see Kanyini before they left High school. That’s where the Shark Island Documentary Fund stepped in.

PART THREE – Kanyini Goes to Australian Schools

It was the grant from the Shark Island Documentary Fund that sealed our chance to market and promote Kanyini to every Australian school. We needed assistance building up the website, creating marketing material, promoting to schools via screenings and mail outs and the logistics of distributing the DVDs to schools right around the country. Having every child around Australia view Kanyini is an ambitious plan but it’s an achievable one and one we are starting to realise. There have been many angels along the way. Charline Emzin-Boyd at the NSW Teachers Federation has been lobbying all public schools in NSW to acquire the DVD. Frank Pearce from the Catholic Education Commission NSW has also been a huge supporter as well. He wrote:

Aboriginal culture, identity and spirituality are a very complex diverse continuing circle. They cannot be pulled apart and viewed as individual pieces as each complements and entwines with the other.

The DVD Kanyini and its teacher notes go the closest to explaining Aboriginal, culture, identity and spirituality in lay terms than anything I have viewed in the last 15 years. – Frank Pearce

His letter is on the website, along with Jeff McMullen’s recommendation for Kanyini to be used as a resource in schools. Frank’s letter will also accompany the pamphlet and the order form, which will go to schools in mails out during 2007.

Another fantastic alliance has been the Dare to Lead group. This is a group of leading principals from around Australia who are very active in promoting Reconciliation in Australian schools. Brian Giles-Brown runs the NSW arm of Dare to Lead. He said this…”I think your film is a stunning, thought provoking and challenging piece of work.”

Getting the film in front of key people in the Education department to get their support is an ongoing and fun task. It is really important to keep lobbying for Kanyini because ‘word of mouth’ is the key to getting Kanyini into schools. The Honourable Patricia Forsythe’s speech in the NSW Parliament is a testament to the strength of word-of-mouth promotion. Patricia, a former History teacher, hailed KANYINI's value as a resource for the teaching of our shared history. The former NSW Premier, Nick Greiner said of KANYINI, "It belongs in our schools." Once word of mouth begins magic seems to happen.

Essential to our ‘Kanyini for Schools’ campaign has been the creation of a Study Guide with the Australian Teachers of Media, which we provide for free on the Kanyini website: www.kanyini.com.

Also essential are the seminars I have attended organized by the Teacher’s Federation of NSW to speak about the film. I have been to many school halls to speak about Kanyini. I really enjoy talking to teachers about the film and learning from them how students are reacting to Kanyini. Overall, I am told, the children are extremely moved.

PART FOUR – A Few Thoughts

In summary, so many wonderful things are happening with Kanyini. Not only has Kanyini received a cinema release here but it also has a cinema release for Britain in 2007. Kanyini also won the ‘Discovery Channel Inside Film Award for Best Documentary’ as well as the ‘Independent Spirit Inside Film Award’ in 2006. Both awards were televised on SBS on Nov 17, 2006. Of course the dream of having every Australian child see Kanyini is a dream that is coming true. All of this magic is only possible of course due to the generous assistance and visionary qualities of philanthropists such as the Shark Island Documentary Fund, Macquarie Bank, the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation, the GPT group and the NT Film Office.

Filmmakers can have dreams of making the world a better place through their storytelling but such dreams will fall flat if filmmakers don’t have financial backing to support their endeavours. What has been crucial in the making of Kanyini is the ‘independent’ financial backing. Such financing has allowed me to nurture my ideas comprehensively and without compromise or a tight deadline. It has also allowed me to create a film which would not generally be supported my mainstream broadcasters. Often it is those films which stand outside of the mainstream and reflect upon it that can cause shifts in thinking. I hope more and more of these films will be made over the coming years. Once again, thank you to all of those financiers who took a risk with Kanyini. Uncle Bob and I are very grateful. Together, we might just shift some ‘negative attitudes’ with regards to our Indigenous brothers’ and sisters’ current situation.