When Aboriginal people appeared in a 1950 film they were asked to invent dialogue. Now a spotlight is shining on the tale they told
A translation project has found that Anangu actors in the 1950 film Bitter Springs were not speaking meaningless words, as the film crew believed. Instead, they improvised dialogue that depicted life as white settlers displaced them from their land. The actors, who travelled by train to Quorn in South Australia, were never given a script. Researchers and First Nations language speakers are now translating the film, and a group is seeking a premiere in Adelaide that recognises the Anangu actors.