Green Bush
Clip 3: ‘You’re a good part of this’
2 min 31 sec
Taken from the short film Green Bush (2005)
Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be PG
Availability of the complete title
Please be aware that this clip may contain the names, images and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may now be deceased.
Curator’s clip description
Kenny answers a knock at the door. It is Steven. Steven asks for a smoke. There is an altercation between Kenny and Steven over Steven’s abuse of his mother Rosie. The old man tells Kenny not to participate in the violence, he’s not a part of this. Kenny says he is a part of this. The old man says he is the good part of this, and sometimes, it is better to do nothing.
Curator’s notes
The courage of this film is that it deals with issues of transition and responsibility, rites of passage, making a direct reference to ceremonial practices where boys become men through initiation ceremonies. Perhaps one of the few Indigenous filmmakers who could make this statement, his experience taken directly from being a part of this community, Thornton states simply that abusing one’s own family means that one’s right to manhood is surrendered or at least suspended. Thornton’s work has a deepness and stillness to it, the moral of the story evoked in a gentle manner without compromising its entertainment value.
Romaine Moreton, curator
have teachers’ notes.
