7 Times Joel Shields Fought for his Rights in Redfern Now

In this scene, Joel searched ‘Australia’ on the Internet to see what ‘represents’ Australia. He was disappointed by what he found, which were symbolic images of ‘white Australia’. He found images like a classic meat pie and sauce, tourist attractions (the big banana) and a girl wearing the Australian flag as a dress. After we are shown the computer screen, it cuts to a close up of Joel (Aaron Mcgrath). Aaron Mcgrath portrayed Joel to be upset in this scene; his mouth was downturned, eyes wide and his shoulders slumped. Since we (the audience) like Joel, we become upset when he is as well. This connects the audience to the storyline and they see the indigenous perspective of the issue.

During the assembly, Joel did not even stand up to sing the national anthem. He had his mouth downturned and he stared straight ahead. His eyebrows were tensed and his expression never changed for that whole scene, showing the determination needed to fight the power. The camera cut between to Mrs McCann singing into the microphone and Joel sitting down, setting up their conflict. When her eyes first glanced at Joel we can see that she was startled and she had to look again. Her head jerked back slightly when she saw him, indicating her surprise. As a viewer, we would think of her surprise as entertaining, because the way she is set out we are not supposed to like her. We think it serves her right for forcing the national anthem to be sung amongst the students. This suggests that people in power need to consider other people’s perspectives and how they might feel about the situation.

During the last scene, Joel walks into the English classroom where the students were typing on their laptops and Mr Parrish was writing on the whiteboard. When Mr Parrish looks at Joel he instantly smiled and said “Morning Mornings Joel” which, was a quote that he and Joel discussed during an English class earlier on in the episode. Everyone looked up at Joel and they were happy to see him as well. We can see that if you stand up for something that you strongly believe in, a happy ending will come to it with hard work and dedication.

During this scene, Joel is lip-syncing to the national anthem so he wouldn’t get into trouble again, even though he doesn’t feel right about lip-syncing to it. We can see the change in his face when he realises that something wasn’t right. Joel was the focus of the shot because of the blurred students and sharpness of Joel. The camera also panned from right to left, allowing the audience to see the different angles of Joel. We are focused on Joel this long because it gives the train of thought about Indigenous Australians’ rights and their side of the national anthem. It shows that the national anthem doesn’t recognise Indigenous Australians and what they sacrificed when Captain Cook invaded Australia.

After Joel was expelled from Clifton Grammar, the Shields family wanted Joel to keep going to school. When Joel goes back to school for the first time after he was expelled, the students that were behind Joel were all shocked. We can see that some of the students were pointing at him and then directly talked to the person next to them. Joel went into his English lesson with Mr Parrish and sat down next to Chloe. Soon after this, Joel was sent out by Mrs McCann Eddie and Nic waited. Eddie (Marley Sharp) stated to Mrs McCann “You know what? We’re gonna be back here tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that.”
The following day, Joel came back, but Mrs McCann and a security guard quickly escorted him out. Eddie hired a photographer to take photos of Joel being kicked out, which resulted in the local newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, having the front page of Joel being expelled over not singing the national anthem.

When Mr Moore, the school’s Aboriginal Liaison officer told Joel that he was lip-syncing to the national anthem for five years, it made Joel think about lip-syncing to the anthem in the assemblies. In his room, he had the lyrics to ‘Advanced Australia Fair’ in his hands. The camera was reflecting off of the mirror, showing the top half of Joel’s body and up. Throughout his practice the audience can hear some noise come out from the music. When Joel hears a knock on his door from his dad, Eddie, he immediately sits down at his desk. His expression when he heard the knock was guilt and shock. When Eddie comes in he asks what Joel was doing and Joel responded “Nah, nothin’”. When he said this, the camera had a close-up to Joel’s face; his mouth was once again downturned, and his eyes were faced down to the lyrics of the national anthem.

The assembly after the Shields family got the press involved with the issue saw, several students from the Indigenous Scholarships Program take a stand. Students were sitting down and not singing during the national anthem and they were all looking in front of them with their mouths downturned. When Mrs McCann looked down each aisle students were sitting down; she immediately realised that things were getting out of hand. When Mrs McCann looked down the aisle Chloe (Madeline Madden) was sitting down in, they made eye contact for less than a second and Chloe looked straight back in front of her. Mrs McCann went back to the stage and told Mr Parrish to ‘handle them’. Mr Parrish refused and said “Things have gotten way out of hand, we have to get Joel back.” Mrs McCann was shocked from this answer because she thought that Mr Parrish was on ‘her side’ of this argument. The camera quickly cuts between the students that were sitting down and back to Mrs McCann. This repeated a number of times until she walked back up to the stage.