Black Picture Fans Disappointed

Northern Advocate, 27 May 1941, Page 10

Black Picture Fans Disappointed

Twelve months ago, Jacala, a young buck of one of the Arnhem Land tribes was taken from the bosom of his family by the North Australian Police and lodged in Darwin gaol, 400 miles away. A tribal chief had been fatally speared during a fight on the banks of the King River, and the police charged Jacala with his murder Through the bars of his cell Jacala saw some of the wonders of the world and determined to see more, but when he was discharged the police hustled him out of the town so quickly that the information he took back to his tribe was mostly hearsay. But Jacala made the most of what he had, and if he Had not all that was wanted, Jacala was a man of resource.

“Just Over the Hill”

To 19 other members of the tribe he sold the idea that Darwin, which was “just over the other side ,of the hill” was a “good place,” particularly the picture show which he had left too hurriedly to see. So the 20 of them set off to walk the 400 miles across some of the worst of the bad lands of the territory. It took them 40 days, and they arrived hungry, emaciated and footsore. They begged, borrowed or stole the price of admission to the picture theatre and then came disillusionment.

Natives love the pictures. They go almost berserk over westerns, but love pictures leave them cold as the tropic climate will allow. When the kissing begins they all switch on their electric torches—and how they love electric torches—and point them at the screen so that the picture is almost invisible.'

The Alternative It was a love picture that Jacala and his tribesmen saw—and they had no electric torches—so they walked out of the theatre, and out of the town along the long trail for home. • One hundred miles out the wet season caught them. Rivers and creeks overflowed and flooded the plain they were traverse&g, so they , had to take refuge for two sleepless nights in trees, tortured by clouds of mosquitoes. When the water flowed away they retraced their steps to Darwin, where the police put them aboard a patrol vessel which took them home by sea. They are now part of the tribal saga.