Alexandria Norris-Moore: Oxford Human Rights Festival screening of Utopia

Being on the Oxford Human Rights Festival Committee was a great experience. The one night I would draw light on was the screening of Utopia. Utopia is a documentary on the extraordinary story about white Australia and its deeply dysfunctional relationship with the Indigenous Australian community. Following the viewing we held a panel discussion with three guests who from very interesting backgrounds all looking at this issue of land rights for aboriginals, tribal people and natives across the world: Peter Kilroy, Jonathan Mazower and Dr Regina Lim.

Peter Kilroy is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies and the Department of Film Studies at King’s College London. Jonathan Mazower is Advocacy and Media Director at Survival International, an organisation which helps tribal peoples defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures. Dr Regina Lim did her PhD research in Philippine Cultural Identity and Traditional Settlements in Development: Coming to terms with cultural diversity in a nation-state.

This powerful film by John Pilger looks at the awful truth behind white Australia's dysfunctional relationship with Indigenous Australians. With the 2007 "intervention" in the Northern Territory organised by the John Howard government. Where townships were compulsorily acquired and native title legislation ignored and yet no prosecution for child abuse resulted, and studies appeared to conclude that the situation was no better or worse than in white areas. The panel looked at this through the question around providing other examples of political interference within the field of land rights for tribal people across the world.

The awful truth is that Indigenous communities are on mineral-rich lands that cause mouths to water in mining corporation boardrooms. It has been stated that Even if the "intervention" wasn't a straightforward land grab, then it suited powerful people who have a vested interest in keeping Indigenous Australians second-class. The panel looked at this tackling the question of land being taken away for benefits of the government economically.
The panel then focused on the film itself looking at what challenges a film maker may have in trying to get involvement from Australian Aboriginals to be a part of something like the documentary Utopia.
It was a very educational and insightful evening that took us from work with Bushmen of Botswana with Survival International to Indigenous Australians having remained itinerant and stateless citizens in their own state, to the struggles of land rights for tribes within the Philippines.