Cultural Healing Rethinking Education in Maya Newell’s In My Blood It Runs

In My Blood It Runs (Maya Newell, 2019) is a beautifully constructed documentary that tells the story of ten-year-old Arrernte/Garrwa boy Dujuan Hoosan. Filmed over a three-year period, it taps into the enduring strength and dignity of Aboriginal people and cultures, while also exposing the stress, struggle and conflict that arise from having to fit into the social structures, education and pathways that have been shaped by Europeans. Through getting to know Dujuan and his extended family, the viewer is immersed in his world of contrasts. In one frame, his cheeky smile and laughter fills up the screen; in another, we observe his reverence for his time-honoured culture and his awareness of his place within it. Elsewhere, however, his joy melts away, replaced by the dejection he feels in the classroom setting. Through its many contrasting elements, In My Blood It Runs intimately exposes the uneasy truth that, for many Aboriginal children like Dujuan, there is no easy answer to the complex and conflicting conditions governing their lives – nor to the looming prospect of juvenile incarceration (and worse).

Despite this, is not just a film about the pain and dispossession that many First Nations people feel. It is also a film that presents and celebrates its subjects’ deep spirituality, resilience, and connection to country and one another. It takes to task the anachronistic idea that Aboriginal people should be expected to conform to the structures, policies and way of life that have been forced on them by the conquering culture since the landing of the First Fleet. It challenges the Australian Government’s out-of-touch, bureaucratic response to Indigenous children’s