Search

From the late 1930s until the early 1970s, foreign language films were commonly categorised by Australian film exhibitors and distributors as 'Continental'. Continental films were earmarked for exhibition to audiences described as 'discerning' and 'sophisticated', epithets which distinguished their more 'discriminating' taste from the popular preferences of mainstream cinema audiences. But 'Continental' had ambiguous connotations. Foreign language cinemas exploited the association of 'Continental' with high culture, for example, by appropriating French icons, but 'Continental' could also mean scurrilous and sordid. It was the Continental cinema audience's apparent transcendence of these moral ambiguities, its seemingly effortless appreciation of 'art', and its cosmopolitan approval of select aspects of foreign 'culture' that demonstrated its sophistication and cultural distinction. In its attitudes towards sex, art and ethnic diversity, the Continental cinema audience anticipated the more widespread social and cultural changes that would transform Australian society in the 1960s and 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Commonwealth government of Australia introduced the policy of 'assimilation' in the early 1950s. This policy aimed to merge Aboriginal people with other Australians. In 1953 the government drafted legislation that would cease to discriminate against Aboriginal people on the basis of their race, but would instead discriminate against Aboriginal people whose social status rendered them 'wards'. This reclassification process ultimately affected almost every Aboriginal person in the Northern Territory. However, the assimilation policy could not be implemented until a census had been undertaken of all Aboriginal people in the jurisdiction to determine which people would be listed as wards. The full implementation of the assimilation policy was delayed as the census took over four years to complete. The government employed patrol officers whose role included locating, naming and registering all Northern Territory Aboriginal people. Many obstacles confronted the patrol officers and the administrators in the completion of the census. This article tells the story of the census. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]