How Wayne Blair’s "The Sapphires" tells a story of collective and individual belonging

Lexy Akillas

doi:10.5130/nesais.v5i1.1571

Abstract

Wayne Blair’s 2012, dramatic comedy The Sapphires is an Australian film that discusses a number of important issues for Indigenous people, including the concept of belonging. Blair explores how belonging can exist both within community groups and internally through self-identity. The bones of the film are based on the true story of Laurel Robinson and Lois Peeler, two Indigenous women who toured Vietnam as the original ‘Sapphires’ with a New Zealand Maori band (Herche 2013). Laurel Robinson’s son, Tony Briggs wrote the screenplay and the 2004 musical (of the same name) thus being able to add a sense of authenticity. The film opens up a side of Australian history that has previously been underrepresented but has a universal appeal through its representation of belonging.

Highlights

Finding a sense of belonging within local communities was often unachievable for Indigenous people in the 20th century, due to the discriminatory laws
The audience can be seen as a personification of the attitudes that wider non-Indigenous Australians held at the time
The film takes place one year after the 1967 Referendum, which ruled that Indigenous Australians were on the ‘same constitutional footing as settler Australians’ (Stratton 2015, p. 20)

Summary

Lexy Akillas

Wayne Blair’s 2012, dramatic comedy The Sapphires is an Australian film that discusses a number of important issues for Indigenous people, including the concept of belonging. Blair explores how belonging can exist both within community groups and internally through selfidentity. The bones of the film are based on the true story of Laurel Robinson and Lois Peeler, two Indigenous women who toured Vietnam as the original ‘Sapphires’ with a New Zealand Maori band (Herche 2013). Laurel Robinson’s son, Tony Briggs wrote the screenplay and the 2004 musical (of the same name) being able to add a sense of authenticity. The film opens up a side of Australian history that has previously been underrepresented but has a universal appeal through its representation of belonging

Belonging to Communities

Belonging to self

Conclusion