PUSSY RIOT VS THE ORTHODOX RUSSIAN STATE

Elena Volkova
The Anti-Blasphemy Message of the Feminist Punk-Prayer
Koshchunnitsy - a female plural form for a blasphemer - is a new word coined in Russia by a church official, arch priest Vsevolod Chaplin, while condemning Pussy Riot! But what was seen as blasphemy by ecclesial authorities was in fact an anti-blasphemy message addressed to clergy, lay people, and Russian society. having accused Pussy Riot of blasphemy, Russian Orthodox Church provoked a blasphemy counter discourse developed in this paper.

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How a radical form of accessibility is pushing the boundaries of theatre performance 

January 7, 2020 
Have you ever been nervous about going to the theatre?

Maybe you’re unfamiliar with theatre etiquette, maybe you have children or maybe you find it hard to stay still for hours feeling trapped in your seat. In Shakespeare’s day, theatregoers drank, ate and socialized their way through performance.

There is a more generous way to engage with the arts, and related to this, much to learn from disability arts in particular.

Let bodies be bodies

Relaxed performance — an approach to performance that challenges what have developed as strict expectations and codes for audience and performer engagement and behaviour — is making theatre and other types of live performance like fashion shows and musical events more accessible.

As researchers with our own personal experiences with disability and difference, we are interested in the potential of relaxed performance through our work with the ReVision Centre for Art & Social Justice.

Such performances are designed to serve audiences and performers alike. A relaxed audience space welcomes people to move around, eat, emote or step out to a quiet space if they so desire. Relaxed performance might include dimmer lighting and lowered sound, a pre-show talk to explain what will happen and on-going consultation with disabled people to make sure everyone feels welcome.

Tarik Elmoutawakil of Brownton Abbey performs at Cripping the Arts, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto. (Michelle Peek Photography courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, ReVision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph), Author provided

Radical accessibility

Relaxed performance is especially important for those with mental and physical disabilities or differences and those living with a broad range of conditions. Disabled people have historically been excluded from full and meaningful participation in the arts.

Sky Stonefish, centre, and Nadine Changfoot, right, both affiliated with ReVision, are seen in the audience at Cripping the Arts, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto. (Michelle Peek Photography courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, ReVision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph), Author provided

The visibility of disabled people itself has had a troubled history: from being hidden away in attics and institutions to being put on display in freak shows, disabled people are rarely invited to be ourselves in public spaces.

In a study we conducted with British Council Canada, we found that most audience members really enjoy relaxed performances and appreciate the greater freedom they offer. Through our conversations with theatre artists and managers, we’ve also found that relaxed performances make space for disability justice in the arts.

One theatre person we spoke to called relaxed performance “the most radical form of accessibility we have now.”

Magic of disabled artists

Relaxed performances go hand-in-hand with the growing field of disability arts.

Sean Lee, curator and director of programming at Tangled Art + Disability in Toronto, shares how disability arts dismantles the notion that art by disabled artists is primarily therapeutic. Rather, as Lee emphasizes, disability art “opens up new ways of understanding aesthetics and experience.”

Disability arts represents a new international wave showcasing the vitality and creativity of people living with difference. From Erin Ball’s circus performances to Alex Bulmer’s blind theatre work, disabled artists are exploding stereotypes about what disabled people can do. The disability arts movement welcomes disability and invites audiences to come closer and re-imagine relationships to difference.

Arts companies, galleries or programs in Canada such as Bodies in Translation, Tangled Arts + Disability, Inside Out Theatre, Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture, SPiLL.PROpagation and more are changing the cultural conversation about what disability art and disability artists look like.

For everyone

Relaxed performances matter to many people living with difference, including those who do and do not identify with the label of “disability.” Beginning in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, relaxed performance emerged out of autistic communities, as a way to reimagine spaces with sensory sensitivities in mind. Soon, theatre professionals saw the advantages of relaxing performances for many groups. A full 20 per cent of theatres in the UK now offer relaxed performances.

Beginning in 2015, the British Council brought relaxed performance to Canada, delivering training on accessible theatre to theatre professionals. Trainings called into question medical models of disability, which see disability as something that needs fixing.

The audience at ‘Through A Tired Eye,’ by Bruce Horak, at Tangled Art + Disability, Toronto. (Michelle Peek Photography courtesy of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access to Life, ReVision: The Centre for Art & Social Justice at the University of Guelph), Author provided

Relaxed performances borrow from the social model of disability, which views disability as an expression of human diversity, and as part of the story of humanity.

Relaxed spaces include more than just ramps to enter the building. “Access guides” or “visual stories” help audiences know what to expect before they arrive. Some organizations and events in Canada are already producing their own stunning access guides, with plain language glossaries, directions to the event space (with photos), explanations of all the accessibility features that will be in place and more. Others are experimenting with creating their own DIY access guides.

Reaching diverse audiences

A quality relaxed performance doesn’t come together last minute. Accessibility must be thoroughly considered.

For example, what if directors of an upcoming play incorporate sign language interpretation, but marketing hasn’t reached out to Deaf audiences? By making sure to create accessible websites and social media and video invitations for Deaf audiences, arts organisations can demonstrate solidarity with disabled communities.

We are now teaching relaxed performance principles to university students through York University’s theatre department, Ryerson University’s fashion department and the symphonic choir through the University of Guelph’s School of Fine Arts and Music. We are working towards ensuring relaxed performance becomes an integral part of artistic training.

Legislative necessity

Relaxed performances aren’t only a matter of comfort or preference. In June, 2019, Canada passed the Accessible Canada Act. Under this law, government organizations, Crown corporations and government-regulated industries must create accessibility plans, develop feedback tools and consult disabled people. Failure to do so can result in fines up to $250,000.

We anticipate this act is a first step — and that once these measures are embedded in government institutions, they will spread. If art is that which helps society to confront difficult truths and imagine better futures — and we believe it is — then arts organizations will perhaps strive for a higher standard than complying with law.

Artists tend to desire and welcome difference, whether off or on stage. By transforming our cultural spaces and imaginations, we foresee arts organizations creating expansive visions of belonging.

So the next time you’re looking for a night out, choose a relaxed performance. You may be surprised at the ease you feel in a space that welcomes difference.

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Authors 

Carla Rice
Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Guelph 

Kayla Besse
Disability Arts researcher, ReVision Centre, University of Guelph 
Disclosure statement 

Carla Rice receives funding from SSHRC, CIHR, CRC and CFI. 
Kayla Besse is employed by the SSHRC Partnership Grant "Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology, and Access to Life," and works as a Relaxed Performance facilitator with the British Council Canada. 
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A decade after the earthquake, Haiti still struggles to recover

January 9, 2020

More than 300,000 people were killed, several hundred thousand were injured and nearly 1.5 million were left homeless when magnitude 7 earthquake hit Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010.

On that day, the workspace that my colleague Joseph Jr Clorméus, who co-authored this article, usually occupied at the Ministry of National Education completely collapsed. He witnessed an apocalyptic spectacle: colleagues had lost their lives while others were having limbs amputated to escape certain death under the rubble. Outside, corpses littered the streets of the capital while the horrifying spectacle of blood mixed with concrete and dust offered itself to the desolate gaze of a traumatized population.

Ten years later, Haiti hasn’t recovered from this disaster, despite billions of dollars being spent in the country.

Two main factors explain, in our view, the magnitude of this tragedy: the weakness of Haitian public institutions and the disorganization of international aid, particularly from NGOs.

A few months after the earthquake, a girl walks on debris as she uses the structure of a damaged building in Port-au-Prince to air-dry clothes. AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos
The weakness of the Haitian state

Haiti is vulnerable to earthquakes. Historically, they have been managed by the military, which played an important role in both national development and natural disaster management. But the speedy dismantling of the national army under Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s presidency did not allow for the transfer of the army’s natural disaster management skills to other civilian public institutions.

Indeed, a great deal of know-how disappeared. Despite the presence of several government bodies that had tried to develop skills in relation to earthquakes, no reliable operational body was able to manage the institutional vacuum left by the army. Today, Haiti remains very vulnerable to natural disasters on its territory.

Read more: Haiti crisis highlights the need for a strong civil service

The succession of unstable governments over the past four decades hasn’t helped either. These have significantly weakened the central administration, which then had little capacity to manage and control the country’s territory.

For example, Port-au-Prince, a city originally designed for 3,000 people, was home to almost a million. Ten years later, we can only note that nothing has really changed in this respect. The Haitian state has shown itself incapable of decentralizing and developing its rural environment, which is experiencing an exodus year after year.

The capital and its surroundings are overpopulated and there are no real urban planning policies to impose standards and counter the anarchic constructions that proliferate the city. In this context, any major earthquake could only lead to the disastrous consequences that the country has experienced.

Another problem: in 2010, the Haitian public administration, far from having been reformed, was mainly concerned with collecting taxes on property without any real control over the territory.

The combination of overcrowding, chaotic urban development without a regional development policy, a flagrant lack of resources to intervene on its territory and the skills of its staff has meant that the Haitian public administration has never been able to anticipate the impacts of an earthquake.

People stand in the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince following the earthquake. AP Photo/Rodrigo And, File
Disorganized international aid

The weakness of the Haiti’s public administration is compounded by the disorganization of international aid. Following a decree adopted in 1989 (which amended Article 13 of the 1982 law governing NGOs), responsibility for the co-ordination and supervision of NGO activities on the territory of the Republic of Haiti was entrusted to the Ministry of Planning and External Co-operation (MPCE).

In the aftermath of the earthquake, many studies reported on the presence of thousands of NGOs in the country. However, on its official list, the MPCE recognized barely 300 of them. It can therefore be concluded that the majority of these NGOs were operating in near obscurity.

Several studies have also shown, and we’ve seen on the ground, that the international community’s assistance deployed immediately after the earthquake failed to meet a humanitarian challenge of such magnitude. There was no co-ordination in the interventions of friendly countries in order to optimize the efforts on behalf of the victims. There was great humanitarian disorganization and even a failure on the part of the international community, which had to improvise ineffectively to co-manage a disaster.

With a presence on the ground as early as 2012, we’ve observed that the majority of NGOs arrived in Haiti not to respond to a need expressed by the Haitian government, but rather to serve their own interests, as Dr. Joanne Liu, former president of Médecins Sans Frontières, reports.

There was no co-ordination between them, nor was there any co-ordination with the government. Furthermore, although UN forces deployed with MINUSTAH were present in Haiti, the forces were fragmented and operated under often incompatible models and values. Aid was inefficient, even harmful. The scandal of the reintroduction of cholera in Haiti underscores this reality.

A Peruvian peacekeeper tries to control a crowd during the distribution of food for earthquake survivors at a warehouse in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 19, 2010. UN aid has been largely ineffective. AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File
Post-earthquake

Despite the fact that billions of dollars had been spent in the country, according to international reports, five years after the disaster, debris was still lying in the streets, thousands of people were still living in refugee camps and the majority of public buildings had not been rebuilt.

All of this testifies to the serious difficulties of co-ordination on the ground.

A decade later, the challenges are still immense for Haiti since it must develop construction policies that fit into a certain vision of urban planning. It must also rebuild the archives of public institutions that have been damaged or have disappeared, and it must help post-earthquake generations learn from the past, develop and implement an emergency plan for natural disasters, and design and implement policies and spaces adapted for people with disabilities.

Today, international development practices are seen to be based on a wealth accumulation perspective, giving priority to private sector interests. Canada’s initiatives to direct its aid to the development of the mining sector and free-trade zones in Haiti are evidence of this.

What’s more, Canada’s decision to freeze funding for new projects in Haiti raises several questions: why leave Haiti in such a difficult position? Is the decision intended to make the Haitian state face up to its responsibilities or simply to take the Canadian government off the hook for the failure of international aid in that country? Is this an admission of powerlessness in the face of the profound institutional weaknesses in Haiti?

As we look back at Jan. 12, 2010, we raise a question as troubling as it is fundamental: Has the Haitian government and the international community really learned any lessons from the earthquake?

---30---

Authors

Jean-François Savard
Professeur agrégé, École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP)

Emmanuel Sael
Doctorant en administration publique, École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP)

Joseph Jr Clormeus
Doctorate candidate in public administration, École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP)
Disclosure statement

Jean-François Savard receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Emmanuel Sael and Joseph Jr Clormeus do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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How wildfire smoke affects pets and other animals

January 8, 2020 
Catastrophic fires across the globe are increasing in both frequency and magnitude. The bushfires in Australia, fuelled by heatwaves and drought, have burned more than 10.7 million hectares, an area larger than Iceland.

Over one billion animals are estimated to have died in the Australian bushfires so far. This loss of life is devastating. Horses, dogs and other domestic animals are also being affected by the smoke generated by the wildfires.

Read more: A season in hell: bushfires push at least 20 threatened species closer to extinction

As veterinarians who have cared for small animals following the California wildfires and researched the impacts of wildfires on horses in Canada, we have some perspective on how smoke can harm companion animals and what people can do to protect the animals in their care.
What is smoke?

The composition of smoke depends on what is being burned. The smoke from a house fire or a barn fire will contain different compounds than the smoke from wildfires or bushfires.

When an animal inhales smoke, it brings a combination of toxic gases, such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, and particulate matter, a mixture of small liquid and solid particles, into its throat, nose and lungs.

Smoke inhalation can damage the respiratory tract in multiple ways; it can cause burns and lead to physical irritation, causing the airway to swell and become blocked.

Thick smoke from bushfires blanked the Opera House in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 10, 2019. AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

Toxic gases can impair oxygen delivery and lead to death. Animals with immediate and close exposure to fires, such as barn or house fires, face this risk.

Exposure to bushfires or wildfires results in a sustained, lower-dose exposure to smoke. The major concern here is particulate matter. Very small particulate matter (less than four microns in diametre) can bypass the body’s natural filters and reach the lower airways.
Smoke inhalation in horses

Our relationship with horses is unique in that they bridge the gap between livestock and companion animals. As athletic animals, air quality impacts horses’ capacity to perform. The financial ramifications of impaired performance is not insignificant, given the economic impact of the horse industry in multiple countries.

Horses have a huge lung capacity. A horse moves more than 2,000 litres of air through its lungs every minute during strenuous exercise. With this air, horses also inhale a large number of pollutants, which is drastically increased during fires.

Horse galloping while wearing a mask capable of measuring lung capacity and oxygen uptake from the air. (Collene Ferguson, University of Calgary)

In 2018, Calgary was smothered in wildfire smoke for more than six weeks, with poor air quality warnings issued daily. During this period, we studied the impact of poor air quality on exercise performance in polo horses that were at a maintenance level of fitness at the end of the competition season. They continued the same training program throughout the trial, so all results are due to the improved conditions and not a conditioning effect.

Every horse involved in the study exhibited coughing at rest and during exercise, with owners complaining of decreased performance.

Inflammatory cells, intracellular debris and pollens from horses after exposure to bushfire smoke. (Angelica Galezowski, University of Calgary, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine)

We performed a procedure called a lung wash on these horses to retrieve cells and particulate matter from their lungs. Every horse in the study showed inflammation of the respiratory tract. We also found large amounts of microscopic pollens and other debris trapped in the cells. These findings are diagnostic of asthma in horses, and were also commonly seen by veterinarians working in the affected area.

We also wanted to know how much the performance of these horses improved after prolonged smoke exposure. The gold standard technique to evaluate athletic performance is the measurement of maximum oxygen consumption, also known as VO2max.

After 2.5 weeks of improved air quality, horses had a 15 per cent increase in speed, as well as a 13.2 per cent increase in VO2max, compared to those measures on the first day of improved air quality. To put this into context, training two-year-old racehorses for eight weeks has been reported to result in a 6.7 per cent improvement in VO2max.
How to keep animals safe

There are many guidelines available for people when air quality is poor, but very little information for pet owners.

The air quality index (AQI) is used in Australia and the United States. The AQI is a single number presented on a scale of 0-500, ranging from excellent air quality to the most hazardous air pollution. Canada uses the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI), using a scale from 1 to 10.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported several regions where AQIs had surpassed 500 in December 2019. Wildfires in northern Alberta in 2018 sent AQHI index past 11 in Calgary in May 2019.

Stay indoors

Where possible, animals should be kept indoors when the AQI is greater than 150 or AQHI is 10+ for multiple days in a row to reduce exposure to small particulate matter. The environment matters, however. For example, a dog in a tightly sealed home will have less exposure to airborne irritants than a horse in a stable.

Like human asthmatics, staying indoors might not prevent symptoms in animals with pre-existing respiratory conditions, especially when smoke persists for greater than five days. In addition, brachycephalic breeds such as pugs and bulldogs are likely to have a reduced tolerance to smoke.

The breathing difficulties faced by pugs and bulldogs can grow worse when exposed to smoke. Owners should keep them indoors and limit their exercise. (Shutterstock)

Reduce outdoor physical activity

When animals exercise, they increase the amount of air they inhale, which increases the deposition of particles deep in the lungs.

Based on guidelines from multiple regulatory bodies and associations, we recommend limiting outdoor exercise in animals when smoke is visible. Moderate to intense exercise should be reduced when there is a high or very high risk rating (AQI exceeding 100; AQHI greater than 7). We recommend cancelling events (such as a Thoroughbred race) when there is a very high risk rating (AQI greater than 150 or an AQHI of 10+).

Read more: 'This crisis has been unfolding for years': 4 photos of Australia from space, before and after the bushfires

There’s every indication that fire seasons are going to become longer and more frequent. When smoke starts to blanket the land, remember there are simple things you can do to protect the respiratory health of both you and your pets.

---30---

Authors

Stephanie Laura Bond

Postdoctoral Associate, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary

Laura Osborne

Adjunct associate, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary

Renaud Leguillette

Professor, Calgary Chair in Equine Sports Medicine, DVM, PhD, Dipl.ACVIM, Dipl. ACVSMR, University of Calgary
Disclosure statement

Renaud Leguillette receives funding from the University of Calgary, Calgary Chair in Equine Sports Medicine .

Laura Osborne and Stephanie Laura Bond do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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University of Calgary provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.
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We know bushfire smoke affects our health, but the long-term consequences are hazy

January 10, 2020 

What was short-term exposure has now become medium-term exposure to bushfire smoke in some parts of the country. Stephen Sapore/AAP

In previous years, Australians might have been exposed to bushfire smoke for a few days, or even a week. But this bushfire season is extreme in every respect. Smoke haze has now regularly featured in Australian weather reports for several weeks, stretching across months in some areas.

What we considered to be short-term exposure we must now call medium-term exposure.

Given this is a new phenomenon, we don’t know for sure what prolonged exposure to bushfire smoke could mean for future health. But here’s what air pollution and health data can tell us about the sorts of harms we might be looking at.

Read more: Climate change set to increase air pollution deaths by hundreds of thousands by 2100

Short-term effects

We know poor air quality is having immediate effects, from irritated eyes and throats, to more serious incidents requiring hospital admission – particularly for people with existing respiratory and heart conditions.

After the smoke haze hit Melbourne on Monday, Ambulance Victoria recorded a 51% increase in calls for breathing difficulties.

This aligns with Australian and international research on the acute effects of exposure to bushfire smoke.

But the long-term effects aren’t so clear.

Video credit: Australian Academy of Science.

Long-term effects: what we know

When considering the long-term health consequences of air pollution, we draw on data from heavily polluted regions, typically in Africa, or Asia, where people are exposed to high levels of airborne pollution for years.

It’s no surprise long-term exposure to air pollution negatively affects health over their lifetime. It’s associated with an increased risk of several cancers, and chronic health conditions like respiratory and heart disease.

The World Health Organisation estimates ambient air pollution contributes to 4.2 million premature deaths globally per year.

A recent study in China reported long-term exposure to a high concentration of ultrafine particles called PM2.5 (which we find in bushfire smoke) is linked to an increased risk of stroke.

Read more: How does poor air quality from bushfire smoke affect our health?

We also know the dose of exposure is important. So the worse the pollution, the greater the the health effects.

It’s likely some of these long-term effects will occur in Australia if prolonged bushfires become an annual event.
Experimental studies

Observational studies, like the Chinese one mentioned above, demonstrate the long-term health effects of long-term exposure to air pollution. But we don’t really have any studies like this following populations which have experienced short- or medium-term exposure.

To explore the health risks of more limited exposure, we can look to experimental data from cell and animal models.

These studies follow the models for days (short-term) or weeks (medium-term). They show exposure to any type of airborne pollution – from traffic, bushfires, wood or coal smoke – is detrimental for health.

The results show increased inflammation in the body, and depending on the model, increased incidence of respiratory or heart disease.
What about bushfire smoke?

We don’t have a lot of experimental data on the effects of bushfire smoke specifically, apart from a few studies on cells in the lab.

In my lab we’ve found the short-term in-vitro effects of bushfire smoke are comparable to the smoke from cigarettes. This does not however mean the long-term heath effects would be the same.

Read more: Pregnant women should take extra care to minimise their exposure to bushfire smoke

If we think about what’s burning during a bushfire – grass, leaves, twigs, bushes and trees – it’s also reasonable to draw on experimental data from wood smoke.

Wood smoke contains at least 200 different chemicals; some of them possible carcinogens.

In one small study, ten volunteers were exposed to wood smoke for four 15 minute periods over two hours. Afterwards, participants experienced increased neutrophils, a type of aggressive white blood cell, in both their lungs and circulation. The concentration of particulate matter in the wood smoke was lower than the levels we’ve seen in Sydney.

Different parts of the world will experience different types of air pollution. From shutterstock.com

These short term studies show bushfire smoke is toxic, and it’s this toxicity which is likely to cause long-term effects.

One review found lifelong exposure to wood smoke, for example from indoor heaters, is associated with a 20% increased risk of developing lung cancer. Though it’s important to remember this is long-term exposure; the risks associated with medium-term exposure are not yet known.
How can we apply these findings?

Taking data from one type of airborne pollution and applying it to different pollutants – for example comparing the smoke from only one type of wood to bushfire pollution – is complex. The chemical make up is likely to differ between pollutants, so we need to be cautious extrapolating results.

We also need to be wary about how we translate results from cell and animal studies to humans. Different people are likely to respond to bushfire smoke differently. Our genetic make up is important here.

And with variable factors like at what age the exposure starts, how long it lasts, and other factors we’re exposed to during our lives (which don’t exist in a petri dish), it’s difficult to ascertain how many people will be at risk, and who in particular.
Looking past the haze

The human body actually has a remarkable capacity to cope with air pollution. It appears our genes help protect us from some of the toxic effects of smoke inhalation.

But this doesn’t mean we’re immune to the effect of bushfire smoke; just that we can tolerate a certain amount.

So would a once in a lifetime medium-term exposure have a chronic effect? At the moment there’s no way of answering this.

Read more: How rising temperatures affect our health

But if, as many people fear, this medium term exposure becomes a regular event, it could cross into the long-term exposure we see in some countries, where people are exposed to poor air quality for most of the year. In this scenario, there’s clear evidence we’ll be at higher risk of disease and premature death.

For now, we desperately need studies to help us understand the effects of medium-term exposure to bushfire smoke.

Author

Brian Oliver
Research Leader in Respiratory cellular and molecular biology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Professor, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney
Disclosure statement
Brian Oliver is affiliated with the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (NSW Branch President).
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University of Technology Sydney provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

True History of the Kelly Gang review: an unheroic portrait of a violent, unhinged, colonial punk

January 9, 2020
This screen version of Ned Kelly does not die a hero. Stan

Justin Kurzel’s latest film, True History of the Kelly Gang, marks the tenth screen version of the 1878-1880 Ned Kelly outbreak. It began in 1906 with Charles Tait’s The Story of the Kelly Gang.

Unlike other screen versions, the story of this Ned Kelly is not hagiographic, or romantic. He does not die a social martyr, in a battle of good against bad. He does not end a figure worthy of sorrow and mourning.

Earlier Kelly films were sympathetic to the character: hero worshiping Ned as the great egalitarian hero of the Australian bush. Kurzel’s film, based on the novel by Peter Carey, reads like a response to this framing.

Read more: The case for Ned Kelly's Jerilderie Letter

As with The Snowtown Murders (2011), Kurzel considers how historical criminals are sentimentalised in a way contemporary murderers are not. In his latest film, he crafts a terrifying dystopia, forcing this same lens we place on the Snowtown killers onto Ned Kelly.


On an infertile, amoral Australian wasteland, Ned (played with vigour and vulnerability by both Orlando Schwerdt as a boy and George MacKay as an adult) speaks in a tough, ocker accent – not the customary Irish brogue.

He is not hirsute. No bushranger beard, nor facial hair whatsoever. He is not political. His stance against authority does not come from a wider benevolence to right the wrongs of authority. He is not a Robin Hood social bandit, robbing the rich to feed the poor.

Any romantic or gentlemanly tendencies are given little oxygen.

Ned is a damaged and unhinged violent, colonial, punk anarchist, with an anti-authoritarian ethos, ready to unleash his wrath against those who cross his path or bring threat to his family, especially his mother Ellen. 

Essie Davis, as Ma, finds new depth in the role. Stan

Essie Davis gives Ned’s Ma a wonderful depth and pathos in an often limiting and redundant role. Screenwriter Shaun Grant illuminates her in a way that has been lacking for this crucial character in previous screen depictions.
What is true?

The film opens with a sentence declaring, “Nothing you’re about to see is true”. The word “true” remains on the screen as the other letters fade, replaced by the film’s title. Any sense of “truth” here is to be considered as a mythical interpretation.

Kurzel removes any suggestion Ned led a hero’s life or died a champion of his people.

Here, there are no scenes of Ned robbing banks to fund the poor and impoverished: Kurzel suggests the money was used to line the gang’s own pockets.

In this telling of the Kelly Gang, Ned Kelly is given clear choice and accountability. Stan

There is no reference to the burning of the town’s mortgage bonds during the Jerilderie bank heist. There is no court case and blatant cover ups during the trial. There is no Judge Redmond Barry, deliciously played by Frank Thring in the 1970 film, openly baying for Ned’s blood, declaring his contempt to the jury.

Unlike other films – in particular, Gregor Jordan’s Ned Kelly (2003) – this one gives Kelly a clear choice and accountability in the decisions he makes.
Stringybark Creek

The most debated aspect of Ned’s outlawry is the Stringybark Creek massacre, where the Kelly Gang shot dead three police officers who were sent to track and ambush the brothers for the attempted murder of Constable Fitzpatrick.

Often this Stringybark moment is depicted as a “fair fight”, where the ambushed gang has no choice but to return fire. The sequence is remembered, often sympathetically, as an unfortunate but unavoidable moment.

In the 2003 film, Ned (Heath Ledger), crying over the shot and choking Sergeant Kennedy, retorts “Why didn’t you surrender? I wouldn’t have shot ya”. His final assassination bullet becomes an empathetic mercy killing.


In Kurzel’s film, Ned has the choice to circumnavigate the police party. His gang beg him to do so. Ignoring them he attacks, shooting to kill. Standing amongst the dead police officers, Ned severs Sergeant Kennedy’s ear as a souvenir (as opposed to looting his watch in the 2003 film), then howls to the sky.

The animalistic aspect of Ned punctuates the film; he often dances and howls following his moments of bloody combat.

The violence is fierce and shocking with the camera never shying from the spectacle. But in creating such a gloomy miasma, Kurzel offers a truer history to the sanitised and apologetic ways Ned is often lionized as Australia’s great bandit of social justice.
A quiet death

Captured during his last stand at Glenrowan and sentenced to death, Ned sits isolated in a barren and hollow Melbourne Gaol.

Kurzel places the brutality and despair of Kelly’s story at the centre. Stan

The spectacle of the hundreds of sympathisers outside the gaol gates is not shown or suggested to even exist. The pressmen who were permitted inside to witness and report the death are also unseen.

Save one visit from his incarcerated mother, Ned’s death is solitary and abandoned. There is no one to mourn or show him sympathy.

Kurzel’s Kelly is no sympathetic bandit. Nor is he worthy of compassion or forgiveness. Creating such a hopeless situation presents a deeper understanding of what drove Ned Kelly to his depths of sheer brutality and despair.

For that, Kurzel creates the most complex and complicated Kelly ever put on screen.

True History of the Kelly Gang is in cinemas for a limited release from January 9, and on Stan from January 26

Author

Stephen Gaunson
Senior Lecturer, RMIT University