An exploration of collaboration: |b Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal relationships in ethnographic filmmaking

Abstract

This doctoral project explores the collaborative process and relationships formed \nbetween anthropologists and/or filmmakers and the Aboriginal people they work \nwith. I use the making of film as the research site to explore the collaborative \nprocess and the building of relationships within this process. As \nanthropologists/filmmakers, the Aboriginal people we now work with, are situated \nin, and identify themselves within an environment that is a product of more than \ntwenty years of requesting ownership and control of their representations. \nAboriginal people are in many cases, highly politicised and direct how they work \nwith anthropologists/filmmakers. This has called for the development of a \ncollaborative practice that honours this altered environment and the way in which \nAboriginal people are positioning themselves within it. \nThrough the exploration of my own collaborative practice and those of other \nanthropologist/filmmakers, I argue that collaborative engagement with Aboriginal \npeople is strongest when it is long term and grounded in the core tenets of \nrespect, trust and shared ownership. This results in a visual product that stems \nfrom a process that incorporates the conflicting and differing perspectives and \ndesires of a group of people, versus fulfilling the singular agenda of the \nanthropologist/filmmaker. I also argue that a long term collaborative relationship is \nvisually evident in the film through the way the people being filmed represent \nthemselves on screen. In this exegesis, I critically analyse the collaborative \nrelationships I developed in my project and the evidence in the films for the \nintimacy developed in these relationships. \nThis project is a body of material that includes a series of photographs, two films \nand an exegesis. Incorporated into the film Stitch by Stitch (2017) and the \nexegesis are still images taken from the films and B&W photographs taken during \nmy fieldwork. Stitch by Stitch (2017) is an ethnographic film that was made with a \ngroup of Ngarrindjeri women who live in and around The Coorong and Lower \nMurray Lakes in South Australia. It focuses on a number of core issues of \nimportance to these women. These are linked throughout the film by the process \nof weaving from the freshwater rushes that grow in the estuary environment of The Coorong. These core issues include yarning together, teaching, the degradation of \nthe environment and preparing the next generation as custodians for continuing \nthe cultural and artistic practice of weaving. There is also a second film that is \nstrictly pedagogical and a documentation of the key stages of the weaving \nprocess. This film was made at the request of the woman who has been my \ncentral collaborator and friend in the project, Aunty Ellen Trevorrow. The making of \nthese films constituted my research site for exploring collaboration between myself \nas an anthropologist/filmmaker, and my Ngarrindjeri colleagues. \nI spent seven years making the films with the Ngarrindjeri women. This was \nincorporated into a total of eleven years fieldwork and ongoing engagement with \nNgarrindjeri men and women. My fieldwork was defined by periods of long and \nshort-term stays, multiple conversations and communication with my Ngarrindjeri \ncolleagues. \nUsing the making of the film as the research site as a means to explore \ncollaboration, has resulted in identifying collaborative engagement based on \nrespect, trust and shared ownership as a pathway for ethnographic filmmaking \npractice that honours the contemporary environment in which Aboriginal people \nare now requesting ownership of their representations and enlisting the skills of \nanthropologist/filmmakers in furthering their cultural and political goals. This is a \npathway that encapsulates the building of trust, respect and intimacy between \nfilmmakers/anthropologists and their Aboriginal colleagues, as well as \nacknowledging that any collaborative process is marked by conflicts and differing \nperspectives that potentially allow for multiple outcomes and products. It also \nargues that deep long term relationships are the foundation for building powerful \npartnerships between Aboriginal people and anthropologists and/or filmmakers \ninto the future.