Mimi

Clip 3: Do you know any ‘real Aborigines’?

3 min 1 sec ( skip to teachers’ notes)

Taken from the short film Mimi (2002)

Original title classification M – this clip chosen to be PG

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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

Thornton not only pokes fun at the ignorance of conservative white purchasers of Indigenous art, but also exploits the paradigm of ‘authentic Aboriginality’. The same ignorance Catherine (Sophie Lee) displays in relation to the culture that produced the art she has purchased for investment purposes, extends to the racist stereotypes that persist in dominant culture about the concept of ‘real’ or ‘authentic Aborigines’.

Teachers’ notes

provided by The Le@rning Federation

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This clip shows Catherine (Sophie Lee) terrified by a Mimi sculpture that has come to life in her apartment. Catherine surveys the bloodlike tracks that have appeared on the walls. Clearly frightened, she grabs a kitchen knife and tries to dial emergency services. She then confronts the Mimi but it remains inanimate. Later, the Mimi appears in the kitchen and starts rummaging in the fridge. It asks Catherine her name and when she screams it also screams in fright and runs away. Catherine then phones a friend and asks if they ‘know any real Aborigines’. Jonathan (Aaron Pedersen) arrives, but when he sees the Mimi and it asks him his name he also screams.

Educational value points

  • According to the beliefs of Indigenous people from central Australia and Arnhem Land, Mimi are mischievous and capricious spirits who are believed to possess mystical powers and to live forever. Mimi taught the first Indigenous people in western Arnhem Land how to hunt and paint, and are often consulted by the people. Tall thin beings who live in the crevices of rocks and caves, Mimi speak the same language, observe the same ceremonies and are bound together by the same kinship system as the local Indigenous group.
  • The film explores the commodification of Indigenous Australian art, which is the strongest sector of Australia’s fine arts industry with an annual turnover of about $100 million a year in 2007. Investors have capitalised on the popularity of Indigenous art, and in some cases have been accused of profiteering from Indigenous artists. Catherine buys the Mimi sculpture and a bark painting as an investment, rather than for their artistic merit or cultural significance, thus continuing a Western tradition of the commodification of art.
  • Mimi mixes comedy with the conventions of the horror genre. The film features a single woman terrorised by a supernatural force that brings chaos to her everyday world. Jonathan should be the hero or ‘expert’ who deals with this force and restores normalcy, but this expectation is humorously subverted by having him scream when confronted by a Mimi who speaks. The Mimi is both playful and malevolent, and while it is interested in helping itself to food from the fridge and is itself easily frightened, it also leaves blood-soaked tracks across Catherine’s wall.
  • A 1996 study, Unfinished Business: Australians and Reconciliation’, found that many non-Indigenous people believe that ‘real Aborigines’ are those who live in remote areas and practise traditional culture. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission says that few Indigenous Australians are completely removed from or unaffected by their origins, families, lifestyles and cultures. Indigenous communities are diverse, just as they were prior to colonisation, and this is reflected in the diversity within Indigenous art.
  • The barramundi painting in this clip is done in the so-called ‘X-ray’ style, an art form practised primarily by Indigenous people in Arnhem Land. The X-ray style depicts figures in which the internal organs and bones are visible. X-ray art includes sacred images of ancestral supernatural beings such as Mimi spirits, as well as fish and animals that are important food sources. It is a means by which Indigenous artists express an ongoing relationship with the natural and supernatural worlds. The X-ray image is created by painting a silhouette of the figure, often in white, and then adding the internal details in red or yellow.
  • Aaron Pedersen, who plays Jonathan, is an Arrente man who grew up in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and was a television journalist before becoming an actor. Pedersen has appeared in television dramas such as Heartlands, Wildside, Water Rats, MDA and The Secret Life of Us. His film roles include Dead Heart (1997) and Dark Love Story (2004). Pedersen is critical of the under-representation of Indigenous Australians in film and television, and believes that there is a need for more Aboriginal-specific roles, as well as roles in which the Aboriginality of an actor is not central.
  • Sophie Lee began her career in television before moving into film. Lee first appeared in the television series The Flying Doctors, and also hosted the Bugs Bunny Show in the late 1980s, which was popular among both children and adults. She presented the program Sex in 1991. Her first film role was in Muriel’s Wedding (1994) as Tania, the ‘friend from hell’, and this established her talent as a comedic actor, leading to roles in He Died with a Felafel in his Hand (1999), Holy Smoke (1998) and The Castle (1997). Lee was a member of the Melbourne band Freaked Out Flower Children.
australian screen