An insight as to how these values are incorporated into film, literature and speech.
Like a ball of clay, the traditional values within Australian culture can be molded, manipulated and portrayed through the use of various media.
Beneath clouds (2002) follows the journey of Lena and Vaughn, two teens challenged by their aboriginal heritage. They cross paths as they both head for Sydney and they travel together along a roadside, yet in a sense they are still far from each other. As the film progresses a relationship begins to emerge between the two, an unspoken connection; a mateship.
Both Lena and Vaughn are of Aboriginal decent. Lena's mother is Aboriginal and her father of an Irish background. Already, Lena is challenged as her father is in Ireland and she lives in rural Australia with her Mother and younger brother. Lena denies her aboriginal culture and favours her Caucasian heritage. She seeks spiritual comfort from her Irish heritage and leaves home to escape the horrors of crime, alcohol and teenage pregnancy which suffocate her life.
A 19th century engraving showing Australian "nativ...
English: Paul Keating in 2007.
English: American President William Jefferson (Bil...As she leaves behind her current identity, Lena embarks on her journey to find her other half.
Vaughn's aboriginal ethnicity is more apparent, he is an enraged and aggressive young man who blames the white people of society for his current lifestyle and situation, confinement in juvenile detention. With a group of inmates, Vaughn is sent to cut down trees as a chore. Amongst the young trees which are being cut down, Vaughn carves his initials into a much larger tree which he has kept as a representation of his aspiration to become more in tune with his aboriginal spirituality and his identity as an indigenous Australian. After receiving a message from his sister that his mother is fatally ill Vaughn breaks out of juvenile detention...