A story of land
Exile and the Kingdom
A documentary by Frank Rijavec and Noelene Harrison
Narrated by Roger Solomon (Yirra-Bindiri)
Reviewed by Anthony Benbow
"For years the white media's been coming to Roebourne, for years it's all been bad news. Well, we've got our own story to tell."
These words from Roger Solomon open Exile and the Kingdom, a powerful film made by the Aboriginal community of Roebourne in WA's north-west, about their history and the history of the land they belong to.
The film begins with a journey up the Fortescue River by the Injibarndi, Ngarluma, Banjima and Gurrama people, through their homelands to sacred places where initiation ceremonies are performed. Along the way, the elders recount the dreaming stories of how the landscape was created "when the Earth was soft".
The viewer is struck by the breadth and complexity of Aboriginal law and culture, and the central role this law plays in everyday life. The significance of land within this law and culture is also emphasised — the fact that Aboriginal people regard themselves as belonging to the land, unable to exist without it; if their lands are lost, so is their identity.
From here the film moves into the 1800s, examining the history of white settlement in the Pilbara — a history very different from the one usually presented.
For Aboriginal people, white settlement meant being forced from their lands by violence, by the rifle and chain. They had no way of surviving without this land, and attempts to reclaim it ended only in arrest and imprisonment.
To stay with their land, the people were forced to work as station hands and domestic servants for the pastoralists, in return for nothing more than basic food and clothing. The crude and bigoted nature of white law is contrasted sharply with the supposedly "lawless" system it took over from.
The film also looks at the improper administration of Aboriginal society by white authorities, and how various attempts at reform have failed to improve the situation. It concludes with a simple message — for Aboriginal people, control of their own lives will come only with control of their own land.