Jedda: Jedda dreaming again

An Aboriginal woman dies in childbirth on a remote cattle station in the Northern Territory. The baby girl is raised by the station owner’s wife, Sarah McMann, after the death of her own child. Jedda (Margaret Dingle) grows up between cultures – forbidden from learning about her own, not fully accepted by the other. Her white mother Sarah (Betty Suttor) wants to 'civilise’ her. Sarah’s husband Doug (George Simpson-Lyttle) believes she will lose her 'pride of race’.

When Jedda is about 16 (now played by Ngarla Kunoth), she becomes fascinated by a tall stranger, Marbuck (Robert Tudawali), a tribal Aboriginal man who arrives from the bush, wanting work. When he abducts Jedda, setting fire to the camp, the head stockman Joe (Paul Reynall) sets off in pursuit. Joe, the son of an Afghan teamster and an Aboriginal woman, is in love with Jedda. He pursues them through crocodile-infested swamps and rugged mountains to Marbuck’s traditional lands, but Marbuck’s own clan has rejected him, for breaking their marriage rules. Jedda is from the wrong 'skin’ group. They sing his death song, but Marbuck defies them. As Joe catches up, Marbuck has become insane. He drags Jedda to a cliff top, determined to take her with him.

Notes by Paul Byrnes

Secondary Curator's notes

A landmark film in Australian cinema for many reasons, the idea for Jedda was suggested to Chauvel in Manhattan by a reporter for Time magazine. The idea that Chauvel should use Aboriginal people in a film was based on an observation by the reporter that Aboriginal people are unique to Australia and could not be found in Hollywood. The Chauvels searched Aboriginal communities for Aboriginal people who would act in Jedda. They eventually found Robert Tudawali (also known as Bob Wilson) for the role of Marbuck, and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks (also known as Ngarla Kunoth) to play Jedda. Tudawali would act in one more film, called Dust in the Sun, as well as programs for television. A film about his life was made in 1987, called simply Tudawali and starred Ernie Dingo. Indigenous filmmakers commemorate the career of Robert Tudawali, and have named an award after him. The Tudawali Awards are given out to Indigenous filmmakers who continue the filmmaking tradition of people like Robert Tudawali – the first Aboriginal star – and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks. Robert Tudawali moved to Wave Hill in 1965 as a stockman, and was a spokesman for the Gurindji Strike from 1966 – 67. See From Little Things Big Things Grow for more information on the Wave Hill walkout, and the Gurindji peoples’ fight for the return of their land.

Jedda was made during a time when race division was prominent in Australian society, and the narrative is informed by the idea of assimilation, and the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families by the government in order to 'civilise’ Aboriginal peoples. At the premiere of the film, Aboriginal people were kept separate from white people, with only the two Aboriginal stars allowed to sit with the white folk. A plane carrying footage crashed, and many scenes were lost. As a consequence, the final scenes were filmed in the Blue Mountains, Sydney, with the cliffs painted red to replicate the country in the Northern Territory. Chauvel, one of the most influential filmmakers in Australian history, also made the TV series Australian Walkabout (1959), as well as feature films such as In the Wake of the Bounty (1

You can watch an interview with Rosalie Kunoth-Monks at Australian Biography.

Secondary notes by Romaine Moreton

Jedda synopsis

An Aboriginal woman dies in childbirth on a remote cattle station in the Northern Territory. The baby girl is raised by the station owner’s wife, Sarah McMann, after the death of her own child. Jedda (Margaret Dingle) grows up between cultures – forbidden from learning about her own, not fully accepted by the other. Her white mother Sarah (Betty Suttor) wants to 'civilise’ her. Sarah’s husband Doug (George Simpson-Lyttle) believes she will lose her 'pride of race’.

When Jedda is about 16 (now played by Ngarla Kunoth), she becomes fascinated by a tall stranger, Marbuck (Robert Tudawali), a tribal Aboriginal man who arrives from the bush, wanting work. When he abducts Jedda, setting fire to the camp, the head stockman Joe (Paul Reynall) sets off in pursuit. Joe, the son of an Afghan teamster and an Aboriginal woman, is in love with Jedda. He pursues them through crocodile-infested swamps and rugged mountains to Marbuck’s traditional lands, but Marbuck’s own clan has rejected him, for breaking their marriage rules. Jedda is from the wrong 'skin’ group. They sing his death song, but Marbuck defies them. As Joe catches up, Marbuck has become insane. He drags Jedda to a cliff top, determined to take her with him.