Abstract
Set in 1867, Ivan Sen’s short film Wind tells the story of a young Indigenous tracker named Jess who, in the process of hunting a wanted criminal with his sergeant, begins to trace the footsteps of a community and a heritage he has barely known. This story is set entirely in the mountains, with few references to the wider contexts of Jess and the sergeant, placing it almost completely apart from the plateaus of central ‘big’ truths (Read 2002, p. 54) that constitute the crux of Aboriginal Australian history. Jess’ story acts as a representation of one of the complex anomalies that were a part of early frontier life. It not only tells, but shows audiences that it’s just not that simple.
Highlights
Wind has a strong focus on Aboriginal identity and how it evolves, the influence of colonial history upon that evolution
The interplay of how Aboriginal culture embedded in existing communities within the Western culture that they were forced to become a part of is not – nor how people like Jess were caught in the middle of it
The sergeant respects Jess’ job as a tracker, which aids their companionship, but neither confront the relation Jess has to the man they are hunting, nor the imminent impact on their relationship when the sergeant enacts his duty as an enforcer
Summary
Wind has a strong focus on Aboriginal identity and how it evolves, the influence of colonial history upon that evolution. The interplay of how Aboriginal culture embedded in existing communities within the Western culture that they were forced to become a part of is not – nor how people like Jess were caught in the middle of it. Historians like Goodall found that during emerging frontier communities, tenuous understandings did exist between Aboriginal communities and white colonisers.
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