The scene of the meeting between Storm Boy and the two figures who are pivotal in his life, his father Hideaway Tom and Fingerbone Bill, shows two adult men negotiating a relationship that finds common ground in their shared affection for Storm Boy.Until the 1970s the few roles for Indigenous actors tended to be marginal and to reproduce negative stereotypes or clichéd representations of a people frozen in time and unable to cope with the modern world. Storm Boy was one of the first Australian films to cast an Indigenous Australian as a central character and in a positive role. The clip shows actor David Gulpilil in the role of Fingerbone Bill.The Commission believes that in many places Indigenous custodianship has contributed to the creation of wilderness. The Coorong wetlands are an example of wilderness, defined by the Australian Heritage Commission as 'large areas in which ecological processes continue with minimal change caused by modern development’.It is one of Australia’s most important wetlands, providing a habitat for many animals and a refuge for waterbirds. The wetlands cover 140,500 hectares and consist of a long, shallow lagoon more than 100 km in length that is separated from the Southern Ocean by a narrow sand dune peninsula. The exteriors of Storm Boy were shot in the Coorong wetlands, south-east of Adelaide in South Australia.These arrangements allow Indigenous Australians hunting and gathering rights and the use of the land for cultural activities, such as ceremonies and maintenance of sacred sites. Since the time the film was made, a number of national parks have been handed back to traditional owners, who have then entered into joint management partnerships with various government park authorities. The use of national parks by Indigenous Australians is a significant issue in the clip.It is now recognised that this ongoing connection to the land is critical to the survival of Indigenous cultures. The film was made at a time when Indigenous Australians had started to campaign for land rights on the basis of a centuries-old bond with the land and a continuing obligation and right to protect, use and manage that land and when Tom tells Fingerbone Bill that it is illegal for him to camp in a national park, Bill dismisses this as 'white fella’s law’.Based on a popular children’s book by Australian author Colin Thiele, it uses the overlapping themes of alienation, marginalisation and loss that connect Storm Boy, his father Hideaway Tom, Fingerbone Bill and the pelicans to tackle issues such as black and white relations, family and environmentalism. Released in 1976, the film was an immediate commercial success in Australia and overseas. The clip shows scenes from the feature film Storm Boy.Storm Boy, meanwhile, is eager to see that his father and Fingerbone Bill, both pivotal figures in his life, get on. In the exchange that follows, the two men allude to land rights and the clash of white laws and black culture. After the ranger leaves, Storm Boy and his father, 'Hideaway’ Tom Kingsley, go to Fingerbone Bill’s camp to warn him that the ranger is looking for him and might force him to move on. This clip shows the national park ranger with 'Storm Boy’ (Greg Rowe), who has deliberately led him on a fruitless search of the wetlands for 'Fingerbone’ Bill.
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