I just saw the new Nicole Kidman/Hugh Jackman/Baz Luhrmann epic movie Australia, and enjoyed it very much. Critics seem to be split almost 50-50 on it. I wasn’t expecting it to be almost 3 hours long, but I didn’t notice until it was over because it keeps moving along.
Now, if you’re inspired to learn more about Australia, your University Library has materials for that, including In a sunburned country by Bill Bryson (3rd-floor Main Collection DU105.2 .B83 2000), which I thought was very fun reading. Other titles have more to do with the serious topics in the movie, such as Australia at war, 1939-1945 (3rd-floor Main Collection, D767.8 .R63 1981) and Stolen generations (1st-floor Media Center Videos, GN666 .S87 2001 – VHS format), a film about the Australian policy of removing Aboriginal children from their parents that was in effect from the 1930s until the 1970s.
There is also the web site of the Australian Human Rights Commission, which includes the 1997 report Bringing them home: Report of the national inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.
