Servant or Slave
Thousands upon thousands of Aboriginal girls were abducted from their families and forced into domestic servitude by the Australian government during the Stolen Generations. They were ostensibly engaged as servants, but with complete control over their movements, salaries, and housing conditions, their lives all too often devolved into an irreversible cycle of abuse, rape, and enslavement, with lasting consequences. Servant or Slave is a powerful piece of first-person witness to a dark and forgotten corner of Australian history, recounting the tales of five of these women: Rita, Violet, and the three Wenberg sisters. Servant or Slave is a work of tremendous grief and urgency, shot with exceptional technique and sensitivity by documentarian Steven McGregor (Croker Island Exodus, MIFF2012). It brings to powerful life the human tragedy of Australia's Indigenous past in the unadorned words of those who lived it.