The Contribution of Aboriginal Trackers to Australian Landscape: A Review of One Night the Moon

This essay reviews the contribution of Aboriginal trackers to Australian landscape with reference to the film One Night the Moon. It highlights the role of Aboriginals in guiding the settlers, their knowledge of geography, and their contribution to different spheres of Australian society.

Running head: THE BLACK TRACKER
The Black Tracker
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1THE BLACK TRACKER
Introduction
The successive period of the British settlement in Australia was responsible for referring
the individuals to guide them in the Australian region. These individuals came to be known as
black trackers or aboriginal trackers. The black trackers used to lead a lifestyle of hunting and
gathering and therefore, they were well- acquainted with the navigation and routes. This guiding
skill became an advantage to help the settlers in finding proper place and food. The black
trackers were also able to help in finding out a missing person or fight against other native
groups to capture a specific area. In 1791, the European settlers in Australia recorded the
services of the black trackers as employment activities (Babidge 2016).
Based on the services of the black tracker, Rachael Perkins had directed the film, One
Night the Moon. The story of this 2000 era’s film took place in the region of Andyamathanha
land in Southern Australia. The film was inspired from the story of the black trackers or the
aboriginal trackers. This essay will deal with the contribution of the aboriginal tracker to
Australian landscape. The native population of men, women, children, youth and the elderly
person will be taken into consideration while outlining the essay (Cahir, Tout and Horrocks
2017).
Description
The indigenous and the native culture of the Australian aboriginals are considered to be
continuing from 60,000 years ago. They are the oldest living community and played a major role
in the development of Australian community. Black Tracker, the 1997 documentary was
concerned with the issue of the aboriginal tracker in the region of New South Wales in Australia.

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The story was based on the role played by an aboriginal in tracking and finding out a young boy
(Collins 2016). The film also dealt with the underlying issue of racism when the father of the
young boy refused to take help from a black tracker. The role of the aboriginals portrayed in this
documentary bears a sound evident that there is a grand contribution of the aboriginal people in
the life of the Australians. Among different native languages used by the aboriginals, 120- 150
are currently used where the aboriginal words are not captured by variety of dialects. Apart from
language, aboriginals have made major contribution in the arena of sports, theatre, art, tourism,
literature, music, education and politics. They have a rich background of traditional culture and
heritage and they have implemented the same for developing Australian community. This
characteristic of the aboriginals or the black trackers was portrayed in the form of documentary
and movies on which the essay is based. The movie went on a slightly different track by
selecting a girl to play the role of the lost child, whereas the original story included a young boy.
The director felt that the audience would better connect with the story of a missing child by
picturing a girl rather than a boy (Crittenden 2015).
Moreover, it was shown in the movie that the parents of the child were suggested to
consult a black tracker by the police department, as they were more efficient in tracking the wide
range of Australian region. They were acquainted with every lane and streets of different regions
in Australia and therefore, they will be able to carry out the search rapidly and efficiently than
the police. At this point of the movie, there was a hint of racism, which can be clearly related to
Australian aboriginals (Dunk 2017). The father of the young girl opposed the idea of hiring a
black tracker, which represented his racist character. He remarked that no black individual
should enter his land and it was directed at the dominance of the White Australians on the native
aboriginals. The movie progressed by showing that the voyage to find the lost child was started

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off with the white people rather than the aboriginal trackers. The white people along with the
father of the child started looking at the desolate areas for finding out the missing child. The
black tracker, played by Albert, who was initially appointed for conducting the search, regretted
that the white men were not on the right track. He was an efficient person in carrying out such
activities but the father of the child did not want to take his help. It was shown in the end that the
mother of the child went against her husband to take help from Albert I finding out her child.
The director had wonderfully created the climax scene where it was proved that the white
Australians are still dependent on the aboriginals at every step of their life. The contribution of
the aboriginals to the Australian society is indescribable and they are continuing to do so.
However, they have always remained as a negligible part in the society, either facing verbal
abuse or physical torture from the dominant class of the society (Dussart and Morphy 2017).
The story of One Night the Moon was written by Paul Kelly who was wonderfully
narrated the prevalent scenario in the Australian and the difference between the aboriginals ad
the white- skinned individuals. The musical expression in the film has rightly caught the pulse of
the audience regarding the experience of the Australian society. The superiority complex of the
father of the child even during the crisis when his child was missing, clarified the oppression
faced by the native Australians even in the 21st century. More than half of the native Australian
population fall prey to everyday racism in various spheres of their life. The aboriginals are
always insulted and treated as foolish, black and not accepted by the society (Ferguson et al.
2017). They were not encouraged to involve in any kind of mainstream activities in the society
despite their contribution for the development of the Australian community. It is a short film of
less than an hour where there was not much dialogue but still succeeded in conveying an
incredible feeling.

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The role of the black tracker was portrayed in the particular film from one angle of
tracking and finding out the missing child. However, there are numerous other factors, which
draw attention to the involvement of the native and indigenous Australians towards the
development of the society. it was portrayed in the film that the white people had failed to find
out the lost child and at the end, the mother had to take the help of a black tracker. Thus, it
became transparent that there is no comparison to the aboriginal trackers in sorting out the most
desolate areas. No individuals, not even the police department can become successful in
investigating in the remotest areas of Australia. This tracking and navigating skills of the
aboriginals were helpful in guiding the migrants from a very long time (Gibson 2015).
Apart from the minute detail of geographical knowledge of the Aboriginals regarding the
remote lands of the Australian region, they were effective educationist and mathematicians. This
quality of the native population remained hidden and the kids were taught that the aboriginals
lacked any idea about numbers and they were uncivilized. This has formed the basis of spreading
racism among the dominant class of Australia. There are remarkable personalities among the
aboriginals of Australia who have shown their creativity and excellence in different spheres such
as fertile soils and land. They even had own improved numerical system, medicinal knowledge
and used stars and verbal maps to navigate all over the country and carry out business
transactions (Harman and Grant 2014). They even had significant contribution in the battlefield
as they had fought fiercely against the British rulers but none of their involvements was ever
highlighted.
The practical scenario of the aboriginals in Australia was lucidly revealed through this
film and continued the tradition of overl0oking the contribution of the aboriginal tracker. There
is much evidence in books and documents that the aboriginals were intelligent people and

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utilized their knowledge and education in the development of the Australian society. It was
argued by Kerwin, Hatton and Van Issum (2016) that the schools in Australia should include the
contribution of the aboriginal scholars and academicians in their course curriculum. They will be
able to gather knowledge about their ancestors and their inputs towards the development of
society. It will become easy for the students to learn about the function of science and
importance of critical thinking in problem solving by getting clear concept from the contribution
of the Aboriginal scholars.
On the other hand, Liberman (2017) focused on a different aspect of the aboriginal
contribution in the development of Australian community. It was portrayed in the film that the
father of the lost child refused to take help from Albert, as he was a black tracker. Instead of
taking help from an expert, he decided to choose white men in finding out his lost child. The film
was successful in presenting the raw truth that the white Australians will not survive without the
help of the aboriginals. By reviewing the history of Australia while making the plot of the film, it
was found out that there were several challenges faced by the white Australians and they took
help from the aboriginal to overcome the same (Macniven et al. 2017). The instances of the
white Australians taking help from the aboriginals are outlined below.
 The local people’s knowledge about the hills and mountains helped explorer Archibald
Bell to get his way across the Blue Mountains of New South Wales across the Bilpin
Ridge.
 There were European settlers and immigrants who lacked the knowledge of swimming.
Therefore, it became impossible for them to cross the bridge, which was often flooded.
At that point, the aboriginals came to help by showing them alternative way of reaching
to the destination by effectively using their navigating and guiding skills. Sometimes they

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even helped the explorers to ride in their canoes and cross the rivers (Malaspinas et al.
2016).
 In another case, the aboriginal people helped the white family during Victorian gold rush.
If the aboriginal did not come to help at that time, then the family would not have
survived.
 No one in the whole of Australia knew better about the environment than the Aboriginals.
They had extensive knowledge about the climate and helped the settlers by guiding in the
right way.
 They even possessed disaster management knowledge and played a major role during
flood, forest fire an drought. They always helped the settlers by finding or building a
shelter in the crisis.
 Several settlers have acknowledged the contribution of the aboriginal in saving their
lives. One of the explorers stated that the terrific flood of 1852 in the south- west region
of Sydney could have taken several lives if the aboriginal did not rescue the people in
their canoes (Maynard 2015).
There was a traditional concept that the aboriginals were only involved in the act of hunting
and gathering food, which cannot be denied completely. O’Connor (2017) has countered that the
native population was involved in the practice of agriculture and aquaculture. These
controversies regarding the life and culture of the aboriginals in Australia is continuing from a
long time and enough researches have been done on the same to draw a conclusion.
Nevertheless, there is still a gap in deriving a common ending to the controversy. This is because
major population of the white Australians look down upon the aboriginals and refuse to agree to
their contribution to the Australian society. There is always a clash of superiority complex

7THE BLACK TRACKER
among the dominant class of the society, which results in the oppression of the native trackers
(Tobler et al. 2017).
It can be concluded from this essay that the aboriginals have played a key role in the
development of the Australian society. The concept of black tracker was well- established in this
essay with reference to the film One Night the Moon. The film was partially successful in
admitting the contribution of the aboriginals from a single perspective. There is further scope of
highlighting the inputs and skills of the native Australians in the community development.

8THE BLACK TRACKER
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