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  Film: Kanyini August 27, 2006 Reporter : Peter Thompson Director: Melanie Hogan  Kanyini is a film by a young white Australian filmmaker called Melanie Hogan about an Aboriginal elder, Bob Randall, who was born in the Central Desert near Uluru some seventy years ago. Kanyini is Bob Randall's testament. As a writer, a poet and a teacher, he's well-practised in communicating an understanding of traditional Aboriginal culture to both indigenous and non-indigenous people. Melanie Hogan had read his autobiography, Songman, and she requested a meeting with him. Their friendship grew and, eventually, they collaborated in creating this unique portrait, almost a snapshot, of the Aboriginal story since white invasion more than two-hundred years ago.It's a story many of us think we know, but few of us have heard told with such elegance and clarity. It begins with home. Bob Randall feels deeply and blissfully at home in the desert. His father was a Scottish station owner, but Bob grew up exclusively with his Aboriginal family and for several years he saw very little of the European way of life. He lived as his people had lived for thousands upon thousands of years. MELANIE HOGAN: "A lot of people came back when I'd just informally interviewed Bob and said this man, a lot people need to meet this man, so my intention was, here is this man, learn from this man as I have, and you know there are lots of other people that need to be listened too as well, but this man is a beautiful man to listen to." It's often said that white people should leave Aboriginal stories to Aboriginal people. But while Melanie Hogan felt she had much to learn about filmmaking, she also believed that her journey of understanding could be mirrored in Kanyini. MELANIE HOGAN: "My role for the film was to try and get across Bob's point of view. Now, if Bob has a beautiful spirit, which he does, and he sees the beauty first, then I'm going to, as a filmmaker, get close to Bob's spirit in telling his tale."  Bob Randall does see a profound beauty in the principle of connectedness, the idea of a multilayered understanding of the natural, living world, which is at the heart of Kanyini. But that connection was broken by white invasion. For Bob, it meant being taken from his mother and raised by missionaries on Croker Island, hundreds of miles away. It was many, many years before he began to understand the wider dimensions of what had happened.MELANIE HOGAN: "Bob's message would be: a lot of uncaring actions took place from the time white man has arrived; caring is the only way we're going to make a difference to everybody's lives, both indigenous and non-indigenous; it's not too late to care and to learn from each other." Bob Randall sees pain and confusion on both sides of the racial divide, but he believes that we can re-connect. For Melanie Hogan, he opened up new ways of looking at the world. MELANIE HOGAN: "One, I'd had no interaction whatsoever with indigenous people. Two, he was a man I could learn from like I could learn from my own grandparents and three, there were so many questions in my head about relationships with humans and the earth or the way modern society is going and he could give me a different perspective, one I could think about, not necessarily adopt every part of it, but at least a different perspective that I could take on my own journey. Yeah, I was surprised and happy to meet somebody like that." She can't speak for all Australians, none of us can, but Melanie Hogan believes that many of us are experiencing a shift in our attitudes, an opening up to new possibilities. MELANIE HOGAN: "I think a lot of Australians, I mean, we're still a very — we haven't been here for very long, sort of non-Aboriginal people, I think we're starting to realise there's a lot more to learn and I think as we're coming out of — maybe we're starting to realise that we weren't taught everything, that we are starting to question things and we're also starting to question modern ways of living too, and I'm not saying Aboriginal culture has everything, but I know in my generation, we're definitely questioning the impulse to destroy, not caring for the environment, thinking generations ahead in terms of what are our children, our children's children going to be experiencing, so we're looking for a different way of thinking and being, I think generally, and for Australians, definitely we want to know. I think a lot do."  Kanyini is an exceptionally beautiful film to look at and Melanie Hogan has done a remarkable job in expanding Bob Randall's testament with archival and original material. Of course it's a sad and confronting story — it has to be — but Bob Randall's gentle, sharply intelligent presence leaves you unexpectedly hopeful. Look, I don't often say this, but I really believe you owe it to yourself to see Kanyini. It's a bit like diving under a wave. People can tell you what it feels like, but until you've done it yourself, you don't really know. So don't find excuses. Just do it.Watch a video of this review For movie session times, visit: ninemsn's Movie Guide |
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