Mittwoch, 19. März 2025 um 18:30 Uhr,
Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie der Universität Wien,
Neues Institutsgebäude, 4. Stock, Hörsaal A,
1010 Wien, Universitätsstraße 7.
VORTRAG
Prof. em. Dr. Paul Turnbull (University of Tasmania)
‘Tarzan’ in North Australia: Indigenous participation in Charles Chauvel’s film Uncivilised (1936)
These days, Chauvel’s Uncivilised is rarely shown. The pioneer Australian filmmaker’s 1930s feature film is an embarrassing reminder of the racialism then prevailing in Australian settler society. As film critic Paul Byrnes rightly observes, Uncivilised is ‘basically an Australian Tarzan film. with characters defined more by race than anything else. ’
However, there is arguably more to be said about the film. For in the late 1990s, I learnt from Peter Pryor, a senior Elder and lawman of the Birri – Gubba Nation, whom I knew well, that he had acted in the film. Drawing on Uncle Peter’s recollections of the making of Uncivilised, and surviving documentary sources, my talk focuses on the active participation of Birri-Gubba, Manbara and Bwgcolman peoples in the film, and the traces of their agency discernible in scenes filmed on location in North Queensland.
Paul Turnbull is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Tasmania, and an Honorary Professor in the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the Australian National University. His research on the scientific collecting and uses of the bodies of Australian and other Indigenous peoples has made major contributions to the history of the human sciences, and the history of anthropology in colonial contexts. His books include Science, Museums and Collecting the Dead in Colonial Australia (2017).
Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.
Mag. Barbara Kowalewska
Anthropologische Gesellschaft in Wien
Burgring 7, A-1010 Wien – AUSTRIA
Tel.: (+43 1) 52177 569, 52177 308
Fax: (+43 1) 52177 309
E-Mail: ag@nhm.at
Website: http://www.ag-wien.org/