After spending an entire semester learning about Australian culture, it was really interesting to actually visit the country and interact with people from there. There were many similarities and differences of what I thought due to the representation in film, and what actually is true.

For starters, one similarity is that I had a pretty good idea of the indigenous people. Through the films, no matter if the portrayals were positive or negative, I saw how family oriented the people were. This is true to what I saw in Australia. At the center, I learned about the body painting and the symbolization if that. The paint on the people represent their family or where they are from. In some of the films we watched, characters would stand up for their family and put them first. This really showed when we were there.

Another similarity that I noticed also had to do with the indigenous people. In some films we saw a gender imbalance. Men went to work and women were seen as weak. This stood true when we learned about the lives of the indigenous people. We learned that the men would be the ones to go and hunt while the women would deal with bush medicine and would be the ones expected to take care of the family. Although there were no rules against women taking on the man’s role, this is how the situation would typically go by.

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I really enjoyed our walking tour of the city of Melbourne. This tour was probably my favorite tours that we did out of each of the cities. I didn’t expect to like Melbourne as much as I did since I am not a big city kind of person. But, this city had enough water, cool architecture, and art to balance out the big city scene. It also wasn’t as crowded as Sydney and was pretty clean for the most part.

One of the things I learned on this tour that I thought was the most interesting was about street art. The city of Melbourne is filled with aspiring artists, so it makes sense that street art is so popular here. The government and people of the city used to revolt against the street art by covering over the art by repainting the walls. It was a continuous cycle of repainting because street artists were quick to reclaim the empty wall space. There came a time when the city realized that they would not win this battle. Instead of trying to beat them, they decided to regulate the art. Artists are now allowed to paint in designated areas as long as they have a permit. This is a win for both sides. The artists still get to get their work out there, and the city gains tourist interest to areas of the street art. Some street artists also get recognized and commissioned for other projects from their street art. This relates to our class and our studies because as we looked at Australian culture, I noticed how much art is emphasized.

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The ACMI museum had a very interesting array of information relevant to our course and our study. It was really cool to see some films that we have looked at referenced in the exhibits.

I really enjoyed learning about the history of film, how it originated, how much goes into film, and to compare it to what it is now. From the arrival of film exhibit, I learned that in 1893, Edison created the kinetoscope. This machine serves similarly to what we now consider stop motion. After a series of photographs are taken, a person can crank the machine to flip through each photo to create the effect of movement.  These photo series would typically be very short actions such as sneezing or spinning. In Sydney, there were 5 kinetoscopes set up that attracted 22,000 people during the first five weeks after being set up. This really sparked the start of videos.

Shortly after “stop motion” videos became a thing, a cafe projected an image onto a screen for an audience. When the image started to fully move, the audience loved it.

I learned about how many Indigenous people made videos of their culture. They did this to show their traditions and way of life. This relates to our course and studies because we watched plenty of films that featured the culture of the indigenous people. This was a valuable way to learn about Australia’s history and people before visiting the country and speaking to people there.

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Exploring the wineries and Brighton beach.

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Before arriving in New Zealand and Australia I think I was most excited to visit the Great Barrier Reef. When speaking to my friends and family about where I would be traveling to I was sure to include that stop. Not that I wanted to rush through the first half of the trip but I could not wait until we were in Cairns.

I feel like the Great Barrier Reef is one of those things that I always heard about and knew about for my whole life. Being someone who is interested in the outdoors, traveling, and photography, I would see photos of the reef and know I had to go there one day.

When I jumped in the water to snorkel for the first time I could not believe that I was actually there. I had some expectations of what it would be like but it was actually different than I thought, some good ways and some bad ways. I underestimated the color of the reefs I thought that everything would be brighter in color than it really was. But I learned that this was because of special lighting photographers use. There are special lamps that people use that allow for light to reflect off of the reefs and the water to illuminate and really bring out the coloring of it on its surface. (more…)

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I peaked on this day. Nothing can get any better.

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During my time in New Zealand and Australia I was able to learn about the history, culture, and traditions of the Maori and aboriginal people.

In New Zealand we visited the Marae, a sacred meeting place, to gain insight of the Maori people. Not only did we learn about the culture and traditions but we were able to interact and take part in their lives. I was chosen to play a Maori stick game, learned the Haka, shared the breath of life, and ate a dinner that was cooked underground.

In Australia, we visited the Tjapukai center to learn about the aboriginal people. This experience was similar to our experience in New Zealand because we were also able to engage and interact. We learned how to throw boomerangs and spears as well as watching traditional dances.

Both of these experiences exceeded my expectations and it was super interesting being able to compare the cultures to see their similarities and differences as well how they integrate into today’s society while still upholding their traditions and values.

The first aspect that stood out to me was the appearance of the people. The Maori people decorate their bodies with tattoos of different meanings. One side of their face had tattoos that represented their father’s side and the other represented their mother’s. For the aboriginal people they decorated their bodies with paint. The paint on them represented either animals or weather of where they come from. I was fascinated to hear that men and women could not marry from the same, either wet or dry, because of the close relationships of family. If someone from dry married someone else from dry it would be likely that they would be close cousins. But when wet and dry marry it is more likely to be distant family relatives. Ifound it interesting because although the way of expression was slightly different, both had meaningful ways to portray their lives on their bodies. And both had to do with their history and family which is clearly important to both.

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After watching all of the films at Flickerfest, I kept my eye out for differences in culture between these Australian films and the US.

I did not notice many huge differences in the way of life of the people but rather in the themes that we have pointed out in class. Besides the exception of a few films, featuring the aboriginal culture especially, I would not be able to point out that these were Australian films rather than US films if I had not previously known.

I noticed an overlap of themes in these films similar to the themes in the movies we watched for class. One of the common themes I noticed was violence and abuse. This was especially apparent with domestic abuse. I remember seeing this greatly in films through out the semester with men abusing their wife. I was so shocked by this and did research on it. I learned that this is an actual high volume problem going on in the country. I saw this similar theme in a number of short films. One includes Shiloh which really stood out to me. This film featured a girl going back in time to get her mother out of her troubled relationship with her husband. Shiloh hates seeing her mother being abused so she goes back to the day that they met and does everything in her power to stop their interaction. This obviously changes the whole trajectory of life and she ends up not being born because of this. Shiloh takes drastic measures to ensure the safety of her mother from her abusive father, and even gives up her own life due to it. (more…)

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I enjoyed walking around and learning about Sydney. We had various opportunities to be educated about the city from the bus, walking, the boat, and inside the Opera House. I learned a lot but there were two things that stuck out to me the most.

During the walking tour our guides spoke about the history and start of films. In the past, when there was a disagreement or argument people would make a movie of the situation. Since there is normally more than one side to every situation, arguments in specific, it is good to be able to have both sides represented. Both people will have their sides of the story represented and it may shed light for the other person in the disagreement. Different perspectives can be seen which can lead to a resolution. Instead of simply fighting, people can take an outside look into their own situation. People would be able to see where miscommunication may have occurred. This relates to our course greatly because it is the beginning of film. Who knows what the film industry would be today without the history behind the creation of films.

As we made a stop during our tour, our tour guides made an important note before continuing on with the film education portion. The guides mentioned an acknowledgement of the land. I learned that the country of Australia has the oldest continuous culture. It is important to acknowledge the land of the people who came before us and had a direct impact in the creation of the country and are the history of the ways of life. This goes into the next thing that I learned. (more…)

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Exploring new parts of this city with friends.

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