Convict/Aboriginal partnerships and ruptured histories in The Nightingale

ABSTRACT

This article considers the convict/Aboriginal partnership at the heart of Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale. In doing so it locates Clare and Billy’s relationship within a broader representational history of convict/Aboriginal partnerships on screen. It explores how The Nightingale conforms to, or ruptures, the narrative patterns and tropes that have developed around such encounters. Furthermore, it considers the partnership’s revisionist potential and continuing limitations as a representational means to exploring the multi-layers of power, violence and colonisation on screen.

KEYWORDS:

• Australian cinema
• convict history
• aboriginal history
• Jennifer Kent
• escape narratives

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge my fellow editor Michelle Arrow for her support and the wonderful scholars who gave their time to this special issue and accompanying symposium. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback to this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Dr James Findlay is an historian with interests in media history, convict transportation and settler colonialism in Australia. He is a Research Affiliate with the Department of History at the University of Sydney and an Honorary Associate at the Centre for Media History at Macquarie University. Before undertaking his PhD, he worked extensively in film and television production for companies and broadcasters including the ABC, Beyond Television and Film Australia.

ORCID

James Findlay http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4117-881X

Notes

1 Although premiering in 2018 The Nightingale was not released to mainstream Australian and American audiences until 2019.