preview

Fantome Island Reflection

Decent Essays

Fantome Island Fantome Island, a documentary directed and produced by Sean Gilligan on the Northern Queensland leprosarium, serves as an instrument of education, a story of the untold tales of the lepers of Fantome Island. The documentary is centred on Joe Eggmolesse, one of the inhabitants of the leprosarium, who uses a combination of both historical evidence and personal insight to recreate his experiences, feelings and journey through Fantome island. Many years after his release, Joe returns to the Island. Mirrored by the music, the audience can share in lives of the lepers, what they went through and the lasting impression the leposarium had on them as Joe relives his memories on the island. The atmosphere and mood of the movie is …show more content…

Furthermore, with no visitors permitted on the Island, the lepers were prone to loneliness and depression. For Joe, being separated from his mother and facing the prospect of never seeing her or his family again, heighten feelings of depression, stigmatization and anxiety. It was unfortunate that this disease plagued the country at a time when racism against the Aboriginal people was prevalent. Though both Aboriginal and European lepers were equally affected by the disease and isolated, as its incidence was greatest amongst Aboriginal Australians, it was labelled 'the coloured man's disease' 3. This perception translated into the differential treatment of Aboriginal and European lepers. Accordingly, the health services for Indigenous people were provided in a separate setting to the European people (Fantome Island and Peel Island respectively). The living conditions of the Aboriginal lepers were distinctly substandard & treatment of the lepers was overtly deplorable. Moreover, politics largely magnified the fear and stigma of the disease serving to further segregate the lepers. Aboriginal people suspected of having the disease were forcibly taken by the police & transported in chains to the Island. Joe recalls how he was only a young boy when he was removed from his parents with no idea of where they [the police] would take him. The music that starts of morose, then quickens as the scene shifts to the past as Joe

Get Access