In the trailer for “In My Blood It Runs,” an Aboriginal woman discusses her concerns about her children. “Dujuan is the one I worry about the most,” she says. “He’s got his own mind.” Maya Newell documents Dujuan’s home and school lives — and how the two collide — in her new film.
Described as having “a spiritual connection to, and vast knowledge of, his cultural ancestry,” Dujuan is devoted to his family and is a gifted healer, hunter, and polyglot. However, he struggles in school, pushing back against the curriculum and acting up. “The history that we’re told at school, that was for white people,” he says in the clip.
The more Dujuan resists in school, the closer he gets to being placed in juvenile detention. “Do you want to get locked up with those other kids?” a white woman, presumably an educator, asks him. “This is your last chance.” There’s seems to be a racist edge to the way she speaks to Dujuan — and there’s definitely one in Australia’s juvenile detention system. According to the trailer’s press release, at the time of the documentary’s filming, 100 percent of kids in juvie in Australian State were Aboriginal.
“I was shocked to learn that our mainstream education system perceives [Aboriginal] children as failures at school,” Newell told Women and Hollywood. “And it’s no surprise — in Australia, as in many Western countries, First Nations children are primarily taught only in English, and their successes are measured by Western values.” She added, “Together with the Elders and families who appear onscreen, we collaborated to make a film to combat those ingrained negative stereotypes that smother First Nations people. This is a film that reveals the fight, the culture, the language, and the love within First Nations families that is so often obscured from view.”
Newell’s previous films include “Gayby Baby” and “Richard.”
“In My Blood It Runs” has screened at Hot Docs, DOC NYC, and Sydney Film Festival, among other fests. It will air on PBS as part of “POV” on September 21, and will also be available on pov.org.
