Box The Pony By Leah Purcell And Black Chicks Talking

997 Words4 Pages

Telling our personal stories is important. Our lives are a collection of different stories. Truths about who we are, what we believe, how we struggle and how we are strong. Sharing our personal stories and experiences is extremely important. When we share our personal stories we give the valuable gift of knowledge. We are able to raise awareness and understanding of real issues and experiences. Also telling the story allows the author to uncover their true identity. This is particularly prevalent in the play Box the Pony and the documentary Black Chicks Talking. Box the Pony is the semi-autobiographical one-woman play written by Leah Purcell and Black Chicks Talking is the documentary made in 2002 directed by Leah Purcell. When we share …show more content…

After the Stolen Generation people struggled to define and identify themselves as ‘Aboriginal’. We see this in particular in Black Chicks Talking when Kathryn one of the indigenous women featured in the documentary struggled with identifying herself as an aboriginal person. Leah asked Kathryn the question “How aboriginal do you feel?.” Kathryn couldn’t answer this question this was shown through an unedited long pause and a closeup shot of her face. Kathryn only learnt that she was aboriginal in grade 7 and she doesn't know much about her culture and heritage. These both can possibly lead to her be unable to identify herself. Because of the conception and views of aboriginal people light-skinned Aboriginal people often face challenges on their Aboriginal identity because of stereotyping. In Black Chicks Talking talking Deborah Mailman also talked about the struggle with her father and his aboriginal identity. Deborah said her father didn’t want her or her sibling to hang around the ‘black’ kids. He perceived them to be bad influences. Her father didn’t want to associate his family as being aboriginal because of the consequences and repercussions of the title. By telling their story and reflecting on it people can often uncover their identity and discover themselves their weaknesses, strengths and what they value most in life. This is important because it can allow you to uncover and discover your own true