The Dreaming reels. Vol. 1

Volume I of a two volume set compiled by the National Film and Sound Archive (now ScreenSound) containing a selection of early Australian films, both factual and fictional, that focus on representations of Aboriginal peoples. Early adventurers, explorers, scientists and ethnographers used motion picture cameras to record their travels in far flung reaches of Australia and their encounters with Aboriginal peoples often living traditional tribal lifestyles. The surviving footage reveals as much about the filmmakers as the subjects and expresses the prevailing attitudes of the day. Highlights include the Haddon expedition to the Torres Strait (possibly the world’s first ethnographic film in 1898) ; The Lake Tyres Aboriginal Settlement (1912) ; The Northwest Scientific and Exploration Syndicate in the Kimberley and North Western regions of Western Australia (1917) ; Australia’s first National Highway and the Aboriginal camp at Orbost (1921) ; The wonderland of West Australia, The Douglas Wylie Expedition (1926) ; Natives of Princess Charlotte Bay (Qld) filmed by South Australiam Museum (1926-27) ; Round Australia with the MacRobertson Expedition (1928). Seven feature films are represented with excerpts from “Moth of Moonbi”(1926), “The Enemy within” (1918), “Robbery under arms” (1920), “The Romance of Runnibede” (1927-28), “Trooper O’Brien” (1928), “The Birth of White Australia” and “The Tenth Straw”. Project consultant, Justine Saunders ; music, Jeff Evans.