Aboriginal filmmaker Kieran Satour’s documentary tells of murders and massacres by settlers and First Nations people during construction of the Overland Telegraph Line.
A documentary film by Aboriginal filmmaker Kieran Satour tells the story of the massacres in outback Australia when the Overland Telegraph Line was established in the 1870s.The Truth about the Telegraph will be shown at the Flickerfest short film festival in Sydney until February 1.
Share article The Overland Telegraph Line has long been celebrated as the technological marvel that connected colonial Australia to the rest of the world. Stretching more than 3,000 kilometres from Adelaide to Darwin, it enabled near-instant communication between Australia and Europe for the first time. But for the many Aboriginal nations whose lands the line cut through — including the Kaytetye and Warumungu peoples of Central Australia — the story is very different.That history is now being told in a new short film, The Truth About the Telegraph, by filmmaker Kieran Mpetyane Satour, a Gurindji/Malngin, Pertame Arrernte and Worimi man.”This tells the real story for the first time by including stories that were told by the people involved and passed down,”Shot across the red centre, the film combines striking desert imagery with songs in First Nations languages. It centres on oral histories connected to the Central Australian section of the Overland Telegraph Line, particularly the Barrow Creek and Tennant Creek telegraph stations.Laws clash According to Kaytetye law, two white telegraph construction workers broke a cultural taboo by having relationships with Indigenous women who were already promised to others.”If you have relations with women already promised to someone else, you get speared. So the two construction workers were killed with spears.””There was massive retribution by the white fellas,” he said.The deaths of the two white men were widely reported in colonial newspapers at the time — often transmitted via the newly established telegraph line itself.”Essentially, this was a clash of two sets of laws — those of the communities and those of white Australia.Emily Siddons, from the National Communications Museum, which supported the film, said official reports recorded 11 Aboriginal deaths in the retaliation, but many historical accounts placed the number far higher — between 50 and 90, or more.”What’s astonishing is the complete lack of Aboriginal storytelling about it — or any Indigenous voices at all — even when those stories are uncomfortable.””We are not particularly good at talking about history in this country — especially our relations with First Nations peoples,” she said.In the film, Kaytetye senior elder Tommy “Walkabout” Jangala speaks of Kaytetye country, singing the song of Arelpe, the Moon Man, who created the land alongside Thangkenharenge, the Kaytetye Bird Women. Kaytetye woman Kumanjayi Thompson recounts the police-led violence that followed the killings, describing indiscriminate attacks on Aboriginal men, women and children.Senior Warumungu elder Ross Jakamarra Williams shares stories passed down through his family. His father worked at the Tennant Creek telegraph station; his grandmothers were unpaid workers there. “They rubbed their children with charcoal to darken their skin and hid them in food storage buildings,” he said, to stop authorities from removing them. Warumungu artist Joseph Jungarayi Williams speaks of his grandmother waiting at a tree near the station for her mother to visit. Children of Aboriginal station workers were forbidden from entering the station grounds, limiting contact with family.”These stories need to be known,” he said.”First Nations stories need to be told by First Nations people,” said Simone Mugavin from the company. “All too often, these stories have been taken away from Indigenous storytellers and told by other voices.””These situations make me feel incredibly sick — that our country was born in such violence,” she said.Mr Satour said the film did not seek to pass judgement.”We provide a platform. We’re the conduit for oral history — and for trauma that has been hidden.” The Truth About the Telegraph documents only a fraction of First Nations’ experiences connected to the Overland Telegraph Line. But by centring Kaytetye and Warumungu voices, it reframes one of Australia’s most celebrated infrastructure projects.”These lands were Aboriginal lands long before the telegraph line — and the stories are still here,”
Kieran Mpetyane Satour Overland Telegraph Line Film Documentary Flickerfest
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