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Two Laws: ‘You gonna stay here with me?’
Title:
Two Laws: ‘You gonna stay here with me?’
NFSA ID
55280
Year
1981
Warnings
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons
In a re-enactment, Constable Stott menaces Dolly, who is tied up to a tree. An elder now directs the action of the re-enactment, and the group collectively decide the details of the events and how they unfolded.
Summary by Romaine Moreton
The story of Dolly, how she was beaten and given salt instead of water, is what the community have chosen to tell. Dolly’s surviving siblings are involved in the reconstruction, making it the more profound in how the details are negotiated. Two Laws offers an incredible accomplishment in the re-telling of the story, the negotiations that make this possible, and the procuring of spatiality for something that would otherwise remain without physicality. In other words, Two Laws offers physical dimensions to a story that would have otherwise been relegated to the imagination alone.
Filmmakers
Carolyn Strachan, Alessandro Cavadini, Borroloola Tribal Council
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.