'No More Shame' documentary screening by Rebecca M - Friday, 31 August 2012, 05:58 PM

Hi all

Over the last 5 months, I have been working on a a short educational documentary called 'No More Shame'. This community project was originally initiated by a group of young indigenous women from Robinvale, a town on the Murray river in North West Victoria, who were tired of losing their friends and relatives to suicide and wanted to do something proactive to create change within their community. The film is their story and explores the toxic nature of shame and aims to build awareness around how it impacts the lives of not only the indigenous community, but of all people.

The project has been funded by the Ross Trust Foundation, The Sydney Myer Foundation and The Reach Foundation. The primary purpose of the film is to serve as an educational tool that can be utilsed in workshops that continue to build awareness about shame and as an antidote, encourage empathy and connection, especially within young people.

Myself and the two other filmmakers, Mika Tran and Harry Charnock, have crafted this film on behalf of the Robinvale girls, have spent the last few months immersed in the story.

Their story connects to what we are learning about social change. 'Shame' as identified by Aboriginal communtiies is a great example of the 'power within' or personal struggles that block us from fully partcipating in life and realising where we can start to make change happen. Without this individual awareness and empowerment (as we discussed today) we can't begin to take on the greater forms of social division, power structures and really begin to effect social change within our communities.

There are about 50 places left so if you can make it, would love to have you there. Please book using the link below, it's free! Cheers

Congratulations Becca! What a marvellous project. I shall check my schedule and I hope I can make it. If I can't, I'll be there in spirit and with admiration.

Great Beka! I'm booked in.

This sounds really interesting and exactly the type of self realisation bringing about social change that Nalini was talking about. Some theories, concepts and even case studies in our program can seem to me very far away and abstract. Hearing about this project has really brought it home to me and I’m really looking forward to seeing the doco. Congratulations!

Thanks Becca! I am booked in, really looking forward to it! Well done!

Congrats Becca! Can't wait to see it!

I am booked in!!! No coming back!!!

Let us face shame and look at it into the eyes. This is a really interesting project, setting out to understand the role played by shame in the context of social marginilisation/exclusion. Shame as a corrective bahavioral mechanism institutionalised by society at large has the immense power and ability of suppressing liberties, individualities, and consciences in a quite subtle and indirect way, like the invisible hand of the market, shame could be defined as the invisible hand of ignorance and presumption joined together, a sort of cultural homogenization and reification forced by grand theories and ideologies that do nothing more and nothing less than cancelling diversity and make us suppressed, dependant and slave of lies and illusions, like the beauitiful bird of paradise whose wings have secretely been severed after birth. The bird tries to fly high cause it is in his nature to discover and see the world from the sky, however he feels ashamed that other birds can and he cannot, not knowing that his highselectivity was decided before he was even born. Let's make shame shameful!!!

So let's fly Becca...thanks for your great contribution to a loving Revolution.

Francesco.

Awesome work Becca! Suicide and shame is a topic that is very close to my heart. I was a bit late in booking but great to see you have a full house!

Congrats Becca! I would have liked to come along too - any chance of a special MSH screening? ;-)

Thanks for the support y'all! It has filled up quick, very exciting! Lucy if you would like to come it might still be do-able as we have been given a small amount of reserve seats each. Lets talk more on Friday.

If anyone is interested, the guru on shame research is Brene Brown. Her Ted Talk is pretty inspirational!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

Also, I am loving these RSA animate clips at the moment. There's a great message at the end that connects the repressive nature of the dominant idealogies, the invisible hand of the market and which in effect embodies the same principes as the type of forced positivity, the cultural homegenisation (Francesco you're onto this!), that stops us from questioning and believing things can be better - "it's the powerlessness of positive thinking - the lone individual changing the world...but that we do have power, we have collective power"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=u5um8QWWRvo

The one on education is pretty amazing too ...if you have time!

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Becca, I look forward to watch the documentary! Congratulations!!

We should think which are the factors that generate culture homogenization. I believe one main component is culture stigmatization. This had made (as I am sure we are going to see next Monday) young people feel ashamed of their culture; and in many cases they try to hide it. Mainly because to the eye of the predominant culture it is primitive or basically because it goes against the normal (what everybody does or believes in). I think that we should thinks what can be done to re-value this cultures, especially among young people.

In Argentina this frequently occurs with Aborigines communities. There are few local projects that work to reverse this. One of my friends back home has developed what she calls ‘the multi-cultural magazine’ (or ‘revistita multicultural’ in Spanish). She works with young people from an Aborigines community in Buenos Aires through the creation of a magazine. The participants write and draw in the magazine in their ancestor’s language. You can see some of the ‘revistitas’ editions if you go to the following link:

http://www.la-revistita.com.ar/index.htm

Becca, I put my name on the standby list for the screening and I got an email today with a ticket! There was just a segment on 7:30 report about community led suicide prevention in remote indigenous communities in WA.