Running head: FILM ANALYSIS 1

Film Analysis: In My Blood It Runs

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation
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Film Analysis: In My Blood It Runs

The film In My Blood It Runs provides a critical analysis of the experiences of

Aboriginals in Australia. The film follows the lives of Dujuan, a 10-year-old boy, and his

mother, Meghan, as they navigate through the education and the justice systems in the country.

The director of the film, Maya Newell, gains access to Dujuan’s life at both school and home and

captures the natural behavior of the boy in both contexts. The film exposes the level of

discrimination within the education system, making it a bludgeon for the system built by settlers.

It depicts the normal life of an aboriginal boy in Australia who is loved by his family but faces

discrimination within the education system and is under constant scrutiny from the justice

system.

Maya Newell depicts the struggle of an aboriginal child to fit in the mainstream education

system and the efforts of his family to keep focused in school while maintaining the language

and culture of his community. The film uses the story of Dujuan to illustrate the failings of the

Australian education system. These shortcomings are pushing indigenous children into the hands

of the criminal justice system. According to Maya, the school system does not instill faith in

Dujuan and his family about the probability of the school system presenting him with

opportunities (Newell, 2019). Despite its shortcomings, the school system is a better alternative

to prison. Dujuan’s experiences at school may appear egregious to non-indigenous individuals

but they are familiar to the indigenous audiences. The very fact that indigenous children are

labeled problem students, are often sent to the principal’s office, and can be expelled from school

in the end evinces the mistreatment of those people.

The director illustrates a high level of discrimination within the school system. Dujuan’s

characters within and outside the school are portrayed as two opposite sides of a spectrum. He
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appears as an insightful and thoughtful student with a keen appreciation of his country’s history.

The school system ignores his character and abilities, and he is considered a deficient subject.

The system has not provided a way of dealing with this problem. This treatment impacts his,

character and he becomes aggressive towards the system to avoid the associated shame (Newell,

2019). While the director could have tied down these actions to individual teachers, she

transcends above this and depicts the extent of racism in the schooling and prison system. The

film shows a situation of inherent bias against the indigenous children it purports to support.

The director portrays the concept of settler colonialism and the extent of its proliferation

in the education system. Although the film does not explicitly portray settler colonization, it

clearly shows some of its characteristics through the invasion of an already occupied territory.

The occupation occurs through force and justification of this occupation. According to Dujuan,

Australia is aboriginal land, making the aboriginals the rightful owners of the land. The

schooling system, as one of the major themes in this film, is affected by this conflict. The school

system has developed a discriminative category of the bad student, largely targeting aboriginal

youth. This system is at the core of the removal of the Aboriginal youth from their families.

School performance is the final consideration in this process of settler colonialism and aboriginal

displacement.

The director also portrays the extent of institutional racism within the juvenile system of

Australia. Although aboriginals comprise 25-30% of the population of the country, all the

children in juvenile justice centers are of aboriginal descent. Dujuan’s life is deeply entangled in

this landscape of violence and the history of resistance. To illustrate his understanding of this

ranking in the society, Dujuan says, ‘I was born a little Aboriginal kid, and that means I have a

memory, a memory of Aboriginal people. In my blood, it runs.’ His statement underscores the
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significance of this film in its effort to depict the institutional racism faced by Dujuan, his family,

and other First Nations people. Maya also wants the viewer to understand the discrimination of

the punishment process. The film shows Dujuan receiving various types of punishment. For

instance, he is sent to the time-out corner, intimidated by the principal through the foster care

system (Newell, 2019). Additionally, he is expelled from several schools since his behavior is

considered undesirable.

The film In My Blood It Runs is a reflection of the experiences of the aboriginals in

Australia. The objective of the author is to illustrate the discrimination of the First Nations

people in the country. In the film, Nanna Carol says she wants her children to be educated so that

they know the system when they grow up. The system she is referring to and that is illustrated in

the film is the education system. This system and the judicial one are interconnected. Maya

Newell depicts a wide range of issues surrounding these systems, such as the struggle of

aboriginal children to fit in the education system and the high level of discrimination within this

system. Maya also illustrates the extent of institutional racism within the juvenile system and its

impact on Dujuan and other aboriginal children.

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Reference

Newell, M. (2019). In My Blood It Runs [DVD]. Australia: Bonsai Films.