The Kalara Principle

I conceive of film as a dialogic, participatory, iterative process in constant regeneration, not just a product, through which research participants are enabled to be in control of the process. This collaboration occurs in an intercultural, relational space, through deep listening (likarra, in Nyikina), and learning to see the Aboriginal world, in place (booroo, in Nyikina Country). In conjunction with my professional capacity as filmmaker, the role of researcher bears significant influence on the film process, and enables me to facilitate the expression and the emergence of counter-discourses in multiple domains: history, gender issues, anthropology, development, and agency. In this way, film plays a paramount role in reclaiming Eurocentric discourses.

The significance of place, of its stories from past and present generations of Elders, dialoguing through time, underpins both the research and the films - emerging from it, and coming back to it, knowledge can be communicated, triggered, discussed and re-claimed. In this way, films, as performances, start in booroo, on the ground, to foster the “living culture” aspirations of the participants (De Ishtar, 2008). They are then able to move to an international space, connecting like-minded social actors from all over the world, to eventually come back to booroo, where all cultural actions are born (Poelina, 2009). There, stories must be re-told to keep the Law going, for “the Law is in the Land” (Poelina, in Baker, 2018).

Kalara Framework: Making Seen, Revealing.

A data set containing the diagrammatic graphic representation of the filmmakers process of working with Aboriginal communities in Australia, the cycles, the journey as communities decide their own development focus on Booroo - Nyikina Aboriginal term from the Kimberley region of Australia meaning 'Country'. Content by Magali McDuffie, graphic design by Alexander Hayes.

Available at https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Kalara_-_Reveal_-_Make_Seen/4763383

Hayes, Alexander; McDuffie, Magali (2017): Kalara - Making Seen, Revealing. figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4763383.v4

Our principle is to return to Country all creative productions whether they be a collaboratively and inter-culturally produced film, the cathartic and enduring legacy of a PhD, a suite of photos taken in communities or in fact anything that ‘belongs’ on Country, for the custodians of the stories whose stories we have shared through film. This in return manifests the reality of the Kalara principle and ensures we demonstrate we have listened.