Big brother of Christmas Island [electronic resource] / directed by Mathew Kelley ; produced by Samantha Kelley, Peter Du Cane ; narrated by John Stanton.

Acton, Australian Capital Territory : National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, 1999.

1 online resource (57 min.).

Access is available to the Yale community.

Access restricted by licensing agreement.

Phosphate-rich Christmas Island rears out of the Indian Ocean only ten degrees south of the Equator. It was mined first by the British and then by the Australians. The British Phosphate Commission ran the island like a Raj outpost, exploiting cheap Asian labor and practicing a form of apartheid. Gordon Bennett, a hard-drinking Englishman, came to the remote Australian territory in 1979 to become General Secretary of the Union of Christmas Island Workers. Appalled at what he found, Bennett was determined to dismantle the archaic and racist institutions on the island. The film traces attempts to crush the tiny union and shut down the mine. By the time Bennett died in 1991, he was known as 'Tai Ko Seng' which, roughly translated, means 'big brother who delivers'.

Ethnographic video online. Vol. 3.

Previously released as DVD.

Images / Online / Video & Film

English

May 13, 2019

Documentary films.