Analysis Of The Film Utopia By John Pilger

In his return to outback Australia, John Pilger has little good news about the current status of the First Australians. The truth he paints is eviscerating. The Aboriginals are still disproportionally poor and politically disenfranchised. The film makes you sit up and listen. The facts are challenging, compelling and sickening writes.

In 1985, the campaigning journalist, John Pilger, created The Secret Country, an exploration of how Australia's indigenous people have been treated by those who emigrated from Europe. The film’s discovery of the injustice surrounding Aboriginals was ground-breaking in its time. It awakened public awareness to its nation's ills. However, it is doubtful if progress has been made.

In returning to this issue, Pilger interweaves past and present, taking the titular region of Utopia to spring off his review of the identity of our Indigenous population. Ironically, what greets him understandably disappoints him. As one sequence of archive footage from The Secret Country seamlessly dissolves into a present-day image of Utopia, it becomes evident that many of the prevailing ills have not improved, in some cases, they’ve deteriorated.

Utopia (2013) speaks to all Australians as it investigates why Aboriginals have continued to be treated unjustly. The documentary portrays the vast divide between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals, uncovering the unpalatable truths of Aboriginality that are relevant to Australians. It screams for change, justice and equality, and for that, it is a necessary documentary.From beginning to end, Utopia reinforces the believability of Aboriginal identity being founded on sad, yet accurate stereotypes. The film shows us that Aboriginality has been reduced to ostracism, hopelessness and poverty. Utopia opens with archive footage of Australian mining magnate, Lang Hancock, a man who regarded sterilisation as the solution to the 'Aboriginal problem'. Even though it may seem unbelievable, the breeding out of pure Aboriginal blood was once an Australian government policy; Lang's views were common. It is easier – or no less shocking, to understand how the white settlers allowed or caused such anguish with this perspective.

To emphasise the disparity of wealth in Australia, Pilger takes us from a $30,000 per week apartment in Palm Beach, a suburb in the northern beaches region of Sydney, to Utopia, a region northeast of Alice Springs, which is the most disadvantaged place in Australia. In Utopia, even the most basic services like water access, electricity and sanitation are absent. Pilger foregrounds the overt poverty and hardship endured by the Indigenous community. The squalid living conditions contribute to numerous health problems, including trachoma and gastroenteritis.

The film’s use of juxtaposition of Australia's affluent classes and the grudging poverty of its indigenous people highlights the image of Aboriginal identity and the issues faced in one of the world's richest countries. To support this image, Pilger interviews members of public, health workers, Aboriginals and politicians. He impressively presses his subjects in an admirable bid to unearth explanations about the state of Aboriginality. A portrait is drawn. It is one of modern Australian attitudes and government policies, and the ramifications of them for the Indigenous population. Perhaps most distressing of all is the revelation in the latter half of the documentary. It is revealed in an interview how our government engineered a false propaganda campaign which branded various aboriginal communities as being havens for paedophile gangs. This was in order to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act, paving the path for openly racist policies. This included the removal of newborn babies from their mothers - a disheartening echo of the Stolen Generation period.

Furthermore, it was a ploy to steal the mineral wealth from the land the Aboriginals were living on. This confronting truth accentuates the unjust divide between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals. Symbolic of the continuous plight of the First Australians is Rottnest Island: a former 'concentration camp'. Today, it is a luxury spa with rooms costing $240 per night. These are the very rooms which used to hold 51 Aborigines awaiting their death. Over the mass graves of these Aboriginal prisoners are the roads leading into this spa. However, the veil of tourist niceties covers the sordid history of Aboriginal maltreatment. This evokes a sense of a Nazi-like regime comparable with Auschwitz concentration camps. It fills you with mixed-emotions, first of shock, following by outrage. This ignorance demonstrates how the picture of Aboriginality has not improved.

The film ends with a melancholy and haunting song called 'No More Whispering' by Aboriginal singer Glenn Skuthorpe. This suitable ending seamlessly eases the documentary to its close. Utopia’s poignant tone connected perfectly. The long and sentimental conclusion positions the audience to question why the situation has not changed. How could such a developed country continue to refuse and acknowledge its indigenous people?

This film is evidence of the Australian obligation to correct the perennial view of Aboriginality. This is an influential film about an unfortunately neglected topic, and it is fair in the way it has portrayed it, in spite of the subject matter. Though it is obvious whose side Pilger is on, people of all perspectives get their say and it's inconceivable how anyone could disagree with Pilger's. Utopia is an important but confronting film that highlights the plight of Aboriginals. It was not a documentary Pilger would have wanted to make; it is a documentary he needed to make. Pilger's investigation into Aboriginality and its persistent struggles has called for action. Whether or not this story is to be told again will depend on how we respond to our countries' ills. Pilger is searching for a solution. Utopia is a film that must be seen by all.