Rolf de Heer's 'The Tracker'. Its Role in Australian Postcolonial Narratives and the Concepts of Mimicry and Primitive

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,0, University of Cologne (Philosophisches Seminar), course: In the Wake of First Contact: Australian Postcolonial Narrative, language: English, abstract: This term paper deals with the film 'The Tracker' and will focus on the representation of the black tracker role as a subversive person and character and not as a victim. The film was produced and directed by Rolf de Heer in 2002. It is set in 1922 in the Australian outback where three policemen follow their chained aboriginal tracker. He is not presented as a victim but as a suppressed black man who tricks the white men. The man uses his tracking abilities to find the man who apparently raped a white woman who the policemen thus want to capture and execute. The names of the men refer to their characters and not their names. There is the Fanatic, the Follower, the Veteran and the Fugitive. The film takes a look at a fictional tracker's everyday working life and is based on Aboriginal tracking skills, which they learn from a very early age. Particular information about Trackers will be given further on. There are many reasons to deal with the film and the topic; in the first place it recaptures how Aboriginal people were used by the white Australian government. The topic of the film is also essential for the Australian population and the Aboriginal people, since the British settled down in Australia in 1788. The indigenous people were not always treated in a humanitarian manner. The first contact between black and white people was in the beginning sometimes peaceful, as the story of Bennelong shows. Bennelong was 'the first Aboriginal [man who was] introduced to [the] English culture'. Nevertheless, the first contact between the settlers and the Aboriginal were also marked by brutality and repression, 'physical and cultural violence''. The paper will also deal with the concepts of Mimicry and Primitive, since these are important effects of the Colonization. Likewise, they play a role for the black tracker character in the film, which will be demonstrated further in the paper. Also, it will show the contrasts and similarities in clothing between the tracker and the officers, which will give evidence for mimicry. Furthermore, the paper will point out what trackers do and the importance of tracking in the aboriginal culture. Trackers are of huge importance in the aboriginal culture. Also it gives an outlook into their culture and living.