Charlie’s Country

Community: Life
0:00 – 4:25 minutes

Charlie appears in the opening scene, remembering a time long ago when he was a proud young man who had danced for the Queen of England at the opening of the Sydney Opera House. He lives a simple life in a make-shift hut on the edge of the township. Despite being on the edge of town, it is clear that he is welcome in the community by the many locals who greet him as he walks along.

At the police station, Charlie calls out. He is speaking in his native language and the viewer is left unclear as to whether anyone inside the station will understand him. He is accusing them of coming from far away and bringing bad things like ganja (marijuana), alcohol and tobacco. This immediately denotes Charlie’s resistance to white man’s interference with the Aboriginal lifestyle. The exchange between Charlie and the police officer Luke is friendly despite their cultural divide. This is an indication that the struggle between the two cultures will be portrayed in subtle ways, underscored by systemic influences and control rather than by individual prejudices.

Community/Life Quotes

‘You come from far away and bring us alcohol, ganja, tobacco, all bad!’ (Charlie)

‘G’day Luke. G’day Charlie. You white bastard. You black bastard.’ (Charlie and Luke)

Community: Pay
4:25 – 7:20 minutes

After Charlie receives his money from the community office, he walks past several family members and distributes the money in part to them. This is not unusual and shows the traditional customs held by Indigenous people that wealth and assets are to shared. One man protests that he does not need that much at the time, that he did not need a ‘big note’. This concept of wealth-sharing, while being infallible under hunter-gatherer conditions, is drawn as problematic in the new world. In return for the money given, Charlie takes some cigarettes from a young man. We see later that Charlie throws the cigarettes in a fire demonstrating his disdain for tobacco, his intentions being only to help the young man.

Community/Pay Quote

‘I don’t need a big note.’ (Man in community)

Community: House
7:20 – 10:50 minutes

Charlie stops and looks at a simple house. He considers and speaks to himself about how he would like a house like that. His government-issued house is too full of family – the sharing principle again. He visits Errol at the community office. This in itself is an example of the lack of autonomy held by Indigenous community members in that they have to solicit a white man to provide for their needs. Errol is unsympathetic. His command to ‘sit down’ is patronising, and de Heer positions him with his back to Charlie demonstrating a disregard for Charlie.

Error’s answer to Charlie’s request for a house is simplistic and negative. Charlie interrogates this in light of a bigger picture. He asks about Errol’s life, if he has a home and a job. Errol confirms he has both. Charlie questions why Errol has both a job and a house and why he himself has neither, especially since Errol is living on Charlie’s traditional land. This is the second exchange in which Charlie calls out Indigenous injustice. He does it in a subtle way, often using humour, but always showing his awareness and frustration.

Community/House Quote

‘You’ve got a job…and you got a house… on my land. Where’s my house? Where’s my job?’ (Charlie to Errol)

Community: Hunting
10:50 – 15:25 minutes

The local store is serving a range of junk food. The ‘whitefella’ junk food is mentioned by Charlie as a source of concern. It is presented as an unhealthy intrusion on the community and the reason Charlie is so hungry.

Charlie and Black Pete go hunting as there are known buffalo nearby. They are successful and return to camp triumphantly. De Heer positions them in the car, in a humorous scene in which they need to stand up to drive the car in order to be able to see the road from over the carcass that is strewn across the bonnet. It is a large buffalo and the viewer is made aware from the opening scenes that it will be shared throughout the community. Charlie and Black Pete see an obscured police car in the bushes at the edge of town and instantly are wary. This demonstrates that their interactions with police have not been amicable. The pair decide to sit down slowly.

Community/Hunting Quotes

‘No this is a good one, plenty of meat.’ (Black Pete)

‘Sit down very slowly. I better sit down slowly too.’ (Black Pete)

Community: Police
15:25 – 29:30 minutes

As anticipated, Charlie’s and Black Pete’s interaction with the police is not friendly. The police demand they step out of the car and search the vehicle. They remove two guns and ask if they have licenses for them. Charlie jokes that they don’t need licenses as they aren’t going to drive them. The humour is lost on the policeman who calls him a smartass. It is this humour that keeps the pair going after the police confiscate their guns and impound the car. They joke that the buffalo will soon stink up the station. Humour is noted as something personally possessed, something that cannot be confiscated.

Later, Charlie is woken by a man, Gaz, who asks him to take him and another man to a camp where they can hide out. They are drug dealers and promise Charlie some marijuana if he will help them. The men represent the external corruption of Indigenous communities by white man’s culture. Marijuana is the vice introduced by the mainstream culture to Indigenous people and against which they have had to struggle.

Charlie is hungry and laments with Old Lulu who reminds him that the bush is full of food. Old Lulu asks if Charlie will teach the children traditional dancing. Charlie doesn’t share his optimism that they want to learn, saying they go to school now. The school in Charlie’s mind teaches whitefella ways and dissuades or distracts them from traditional ways.

Luke and another police officer ask Charlie for help to track the whitefellas who are trafficking marijuana on Aboriginal lands. Unbeknownst to them, Charlie has already helped the traffickers find a safe place to camp. He joins them in the police car. Luke admits he did not want to be posted to a community, that he wanted a city position. He says he respects the people there but he is missing the high life. He falls into the trap of thinking that Charlie’s only skills would be traditional ones saying how blackfellas can be smart sometimes. Ultimately the joke will be on him.

Later, Charlie talks to Luke about gun licenses and Luke offers Charlie a recreational license. The suggestion that Charlie be legally labelled a ‘recreational’ hunter by government systems through police processes is offensive to Charlie, once a proud hunter.

Community/Policy Quotes

‘They’ve got my car… and your rifle and my gun.’
‘That’ll soon stink up the whole police station!’ (Black Pete and Charlie)

‘We need to camp somewhere out of the way.’ (Gaz)

‘I have no money left… or food. I’m hungry.’
‘There’s lots of food in the bush. It’s like a supermarket out there.’ (Charlie and Lulu)

‘The kids go to school now. They don’t care anymore.’ (Charlie)

‘We need to teach them… …the traditional ways.’ (Old Lulu)

‘I like the high life.’ (Luke)

‘Damn, you black fellas are smart when you wanna be.’ (Luke)

‘I’m not a recreational shooter… I am… a hunter. I danced for… the Queen of England… when they opened that building. I bet you never did that.’ (Charlie)

Community: Sickness
29:30 – 38:27 minutes

Charlie is asked to look after Albert, a sick man in a wheelchair. De Heer deliberately takes time before the dialogue begins to authentically mimic the traditional style of communication. Contrasting the norms of European Australians that compel speakers to fill uncomfortable silences, this is an example of the Indigenous form of being present with another person without the use of dialogue.

Charlie contemplates that he will be taken from his community for treatment in Darwin and possibly die alone away from his country. This fate saddens Charlie deeply. Later when Charlie is in hospital in Darwin, he comforts an old man on his death bed.

Charlie’s health is faltering and the doctor tells him to stay away from marijuana. His lungs are not well and the doctor urges Charlie to get an x-ray. They discuss the poor quality of food in the community and Charlie’s need for a dentist. Charlie jokes that he will be dead before a dentist comes through town. Humour again disguises the serious fact that services such as this are rare in remote communities. Charlie sees Albert being loaded onto the plane to go to Darwin. He weeps.

Frustrated by the lack of food available, Charlie decides to go hunting. This is a chance to satisfy his hunger for good food and for a traditional lifestyle. He spends time fashioning a spear. Luke sees him walking with it down the street and takes it away saying it is a dangerous weapon. Charlie is puzzled as corrects him, saying it is a hunting spear not a battle spear. The misunderstanding highlights the cultural chasm that exists between them. Charlie is at the end of his tolerance. He sees this as another example of the subjugation of his culture.

Community/Sickness Quotes

‘It’s all that… …white man junk food we eat.’ (Charlie)

‘They’ll take me to Darwin. Then you’ll die in the wrong place… a long way from your country. A long way.’ (Charlie)

‘It’s not a dangerous weapon. It’s a hunting spear, not a battle spear.’ (Charlie to Luke)

‘I’m gonna have to destroy it.’
‘Well, fuck you then. Treacherous bastard! Fuck those thieving… white bastards. Why did you come here? From far away… stealing people’s stuff! Is this your land?’ (Luke and Charlie)

Community: In the bush
38:27 – 1:05:00 minutes

Charlie ‘borrows’ a car from the police station and heads out bush with Black Pete to start living ‘the old ways’. The car runs out of petrol at the edge of town, signifying how reliable white culture would be in the bush. Shedding the car, he continues further into the bush. At this stage, Black Pete returns to the community, an indication that he is compromising. Charlie has chosen the traditional life, Black Pete has chosen a half-half approach.

Charlie builds a shelter and fashions spears. He finds bush food and catches a barramundi which he cooks. He starts to paint with bush materials and celebrates his freedom and the wealth of food that the bush is offering. He feels out of reach from white culture and uses his spear as an example, saying that he owns it and it doesn’t need a license.

Just as it seems things are going well, the rain comes. Another intrusion. Charlie gets wet, cold and hungry. He develops a cough and makes for the cave shelter of his ancestors but then feels they have left. His lungs, affected by years of smoking, have let him down. He returns to his camp and is found by his friend Black Pete and taken to Darwin by Air Ambulance. Looking out the window as he is leaving he is sad, perhaps considering he might be away from the community when he dies.

Community/In the Bush Quotes

‘They stole our land and put a police station on it. They’re lucky. I’m only borrowing their car! We’ll bring it back later.’ (Charlie)

‘Live the old way… …going to my Mother Country.’ (Charlie)

‘Long time since I painted anything… ‘ (Charlie)

‘I’ve been away fishing, now I’m home. I’m eating well. It’s my own supermarket.’ (Charlie)