I don’t wanna be a bludger 1999

I don’t wanna be a bludger 1999

I don’t wanna be a bludger was a satirical look at urban contemporary Aboriginal life. It was basically a story, ‘a day in the life of Destiny’. Destiny’s character wakes up one morning and decides she wants to be an artist and get off the dole ’cause she doesn’t want to be a bludger all her life. She goes through all these escapades of going to art school, trying to get in and being rejected, trying to be a fortune teller (which she thought might be a career move for her as well) and it all sort of ended up in disaster for her at the end of the day. MR

This collaborative film, written and directed by Michael Riley and Melbourne-based Indigenous photographer Destiny Deacon, was commissioned for Living here now: Art and politics, the Perspecta ’99 exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), Sydney, and is now held in the AGNSW collection. Described as ‘a day in the life of Destiny’, the 30-minute film stars both artists, with Riley in a cameo role, along with Indigenous artist Clinton Nain and the late writer, broadcaster and political activist Lisa Bellear. Behind the scenes, Virginia Fraser, a long-time collaborator of Deacon’s, managed props and styling.

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