Where the Green Ants Dream

Dir: Werner Herzog

1984

****

Werner Herzog’s 1984 film, his first venture into the English language, is a healthy mix of fascinating fact and his own wonderful imagination, although everything fictitious in Where the Green Ants Dream is based on some truth, in one way or another. The factual side of the story is based on the Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd case of 1968. In December 1968, the Yolngu people living in Yirrkala, who were the traditional owners of the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land, obtained writs in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory against the Nabalco Corporation, which had secured a twelve-year bauxite mining lease from the Federal Government. Their goal was to establish in law their rightful claim to their homelands. Sadly, Justice Blackburn found that the Yolngu people could not prevent mining on their lands. He categorically held that native title was not part of the law of Australia and went on to add that even had it existed, any native title rights were extinguished. However, Milirrpum led to the establishment of the Woodward Royal Commission and the eventual recognition of Aboriginal Land rights in the Northern Territory. In 1975, shortly before he was dismissed, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam drew up the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 which was later passed (in a slightly diluted form) by the conservative Fraser Government on 9 December 1976. The court interpreter for the case was Galarrwuy Yunupingu, the son of a Gumatj clan leader, Munggurrawuy, who was one of the Yirrkala plaintiffs. Galarrwuy had earlier helped his father draft the Yirrkala bark petitions. He later became chairman of the Northern Land Council and in 1978 became Australian of the Year for his work on indigenous rights. In the film, the Aborigines claim that an area the mining company wishes to work on is the place where green ants dream, and that disturbing them will destroy humanity. This is, as you’d probably guessed, the fictitious aspect of the story, although there is a courtroom incident in the film where a certain secret artefact is revealed, much to the bemusement of the judge, which is based on a real incident and probably fuelled Herzog’s imagination (look out for Herzog’s cameo as everyone leaves the courtroom). The green ants themselves however are mentioned in Aboriginal folklore. Wandjuk Marika, the leader for the Rirratjingu people, an artist and musician who was involved in activism for Aboriginal rights, assisted Herzog greatly during the film’s production, and told him that the ant dreaming belief existed in a clan that lived near Oenpelli in the Northern Territory. Marika’s beautiful didgeridoo music is used throughout the movie and several members of his family who were all activists, some of whom were directly involved in the Milirrpum case of 68, were cast in the film. Herzog made sure the Marikas were paid well for their time and work and soon they had enough money to move from Yirrkala to their ancestral region of Yalanbara, Port Bradshaw. Herzog was criticized by producer and commentator Philip Adams, who was an integral part of the production, introducing Herzog to Marika and the area’s history, was so incensed at what he saw as an implication that the Australian Government was somehow against the Aborigines and wrote a scathing article entitled ‘Dammit Herzog, you are a Liar!’. For me, it doesn’t matter whether the green ant legend is true or not, it’s not really the point of the story, I like it because of just how Herzogian it sounds. The truth is that the Australian Government haven’t always been good to the Aborigines, the crux of the story is true but anyway, Herzog has, once again, struck a wonderful balance between reality and fantasy and has looked at the situation from a different angle than most people would. The really clever part of the film is the casting of the likable Bruce Spence, who, in the lead role, acts as the perfect protagonist, who helps navigate both the open and narrow minded through the real and unreal turn of events. It’s serious, fantastical but also rather light-hearted, which shouldn’t really work, but it does. It’s very Herzogian and I think it marked an important turning point in the directors career.