Bird’seye View CHILDHOOD, GRIEF AND COMMUNITY IN EMU RUNNER
‘Never work with children or animals,’ goes the old movie-industry adage.1 Disregarding this ‘advice’ entirely, Australian director Imogen Thomas sought the talent of kids and birds for her sweet, sentimental debut feature, Emu Runner (2018), which draws on the coming-of-age and social-realist traditions to tell a story about family, girlhood and grief. Shot on location in Brewarrina, New South Wales, this quiet achiever also dramatises urgent political and cultural issues affecting isolated Indigenous communities across the country.
EMU RUNNER RUMINATES ON THE ROLE OF MATRIARCHS AND MATERNAL STAND-INS FOR LITTLE WOMEN MISSING THEIR BIOLOGICAL MOTHERS. THIS IS PARTICULARLY PERTINENT IN THE CONTEXT OF BREWARRINA’S NGEMBA PEOPLE. LIKE MANY AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES, THEY ARE MATRIARCHAL.
Nine-year-old Gem (Brewarrina local Rhae-Kye Waites) lives in a regional town near the banks of the Barwon River. After spending a day fishing with her mum, Darlene (Maurial Spearim), and sister, Valerie (Letisha Boney), she witnesses Darlene’s untimely death. The child and her family are understandably distraught. Soon enough, the adults in Gem’s life feel the pressure to start moving on, but the pre-teen struggles to articulate her enduring grief and sorrow. Yearning for comfort and connection, Gem befriends a wild emu – her mother’s totem animal – until the unintended consequences of doing so cause far more harm than healing. In this way, Emu Runner ruminates on the role of matriarchs and maternal stand-ins for little women missing their biological mothers. This is particularly pertinent in the context of Brewarrina’s Ngemba people. Like many Australian Indigenous communities, they are matriarchal and therefore, in many ways, at odds with the patriarchal structure of European colonisation.
