On 22nd February last year, I reported on my experience in a blog ‘Filming The Carrolup Story for a European Audience’. I had been working with a French TV production team on a project, for Arte, the French/German broadcasting network, and with its Directrice, Emma Piesse.
Emma had, in fact, approached David and me through our website for advice and assistance in filming segment on the Stolen Generations, including Carrolup, for the broadcaster’s cultural travel program Invitation au Voyage. This is transmitted simultaneously in French and German.
On seeing a copy of the transmission of the programme in October, which included other segments, I felt very emotional; the experience bringing back so many memories of participating in such an amazing project.
Noongar elder Ezzard Flowers collaborated with me in presenting this 19-minute program segment. He and I had, back in 2005, travelled with Athol Farmer to Colgate University in upstate New York to assess the newly rediscovered ‘missing’ Carrolup Collection.
Ezzard is part of the Stolen Generations, and lived at Carrolup when it was the Baptist-run Marribank Mission in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Noongar artist Sandra Hill was also interviewed for the program at her home.
That day spent filming at Carrolup was physically and emotionally exhausting for all of us, both for Ezzard and myself, and for Emma and her cinematographer (videographer, really) Charlie Meyer. Charlie also did marvellous drone work. I had never seen Carrolup from the air before. The clip runs for 14.5 minutes, in the middle of a 45-minute program.
Emma would like to create a longer version of this program. That would be wonderful, as this broadcast was limited due to time constraints, and barely dents the surface of the Carrolup Story, which David and I have worked so hard to promote and disseminate.
Even better would be if Emma could create an English language version too, with voice-overs in English (as, of course, all the on-screen dialogue is in English), so it could be broadcast in English language-speaking countries, including Australia, and spread the story even further.
‘I should have uploaded this blog post back in late October when John originally sent it to me, but on my return from holiday I completely forgot to do this. I realised my omission in December , but John and I decided to leave posting it until the New Year. My apologies for my original forgetfulness. I hand you over to John.’ David
