After being available to rent online, the documentary, In My Blood It Runs (2019) is being screened at some reopened cinemas across Australia in June. I was able to stream it on Kanopy (through UWA Library membership) but it will also be broadcast on ABC in July then available on iView. Directed by Maya Newell, but as she’s said in interviews and listed in the credits, it is a collaboration with the Arrernte community in Mparntwe / Alice Springs and a host of indigenous advisors; even the film’s focus, ten year old Dujuan, is given a camera and films moments himself. It’s an empathetic look at Dujuan who is a charismatic, thoughtful kid who is being raised to be a healer. Yet Dujuan also gets into trouble in school, running away from class at day or from home at night. We see how he is raised by his mother Megan and Nan Carol and by the community (predominately indigenous women) to know the Arrernte language and history, to have a good future and an understanding of his history. With the Four Corners expose of Don Dale youth prison in the background on the TV and radio, there is a concern with how the area is policed and the punitive system enforced, which is a constant danger to Dujuan. The film sees this system connected to education with the subject matter in class still tied to colonial ideas of Australian history and a need for Aboriginal history and language to be taught, which is shown in the ways Dujuan responds in the classroom. Beautifully shot and interlaced with montage footage at key moments, In My Blood It Runs is an insight into a life and a family community that is filled with compassion and love, even as they deal with the ongoing inequalities forced upon them by the Australian government. For more information (as well as educational resources), go to inmyblooditruns.com. Recommended.
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