JCU film to explore justice issues

The Stolen Generations, health, poverty, child safety, genocide and the media are the focus of a film screening at James Cook University tomorrow.
Journalist and filmmaker John Pilger’s latest documentary, Utopia, will be screened concurrently at JCU in Townsville and Cairns on May 14.
Utopia, named after the Aboriginal community 350 km north east of Alice Springs, examines the gap between white Australia and Traditional Owners.

 
 
Utopia sees Pilger bring his early work to a new audience and asks if Australia has changed since the days of colonisation.
It is the first film screening for JCU’s Social Justice Cluster, a group of academics looking at social justice issues in the community in the Faculty of Arts, Education and Social Sciences.
JCU Social Justice Cluster researcher, Dr Theresa Petray, said screening Utopia was a good opportunity to initiate a dialogue on a topical Australian issue.
“It is a great opportunity to open up some discussions about Indigenous inequality and, more importantly, what we can do about it,” Dr Petray said.
“As a free community event, it’s a chance for us to explore how social science and education academics can use our skills and resources for the benefit of the community.”
John Pilger is an award-winning Australian journalist based in the UK and is renowned for raising awareness of the injustices suffered by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

James Cook University Faculty of Arts, Education and Social Sciences

The Faculty of Arts, Education and Social Sciences at James Cook University also incorporates the School of Indigenous Australian Studies. The Faculty of Arts offers a learning environment where staff and students from diverse cultural, demographic and learning backgrounds are welcomed and supported to excel in scholarship, research and professional development with particular emphasis on research into issues of relevance to people, identity and places in the tropics.
Discipline studies in areas such as Anthropology, Archaeology, Sociology, Political Science, History, Languages, English and Indigenous Australian Studies provide students with a rich understanding of Australia’s place in the world and of the importance of international affairs in shaping how we live as global citizens.
Graduates from the Faculty of Arts, Education and Social Sciences find worthwhile and rewarding careers in fields that make a difference such as media and publishing, advertising, in government departments and non-government organisations, in health, private practice, education and welfare services, teaching in schools and the tertiary sector, in policy, cultural heritage, community development, and public and foreign affairs.
Postgraduate study to Masters and PhD is available across all disciplines in the faculty. The faculty contributes to several research foci of the university with its greatest emphasis in the area designated “People, Identity and Place” which focuses on people and societies in the tropics. JCU researchers investigate individual, social, cultural and political issues and applying individual, community, regional and global approaches to problem solving. JCU Arts students and staff come from many different countries and cultures and take a global perspective to learning. The Faculty of Arts at James Cook University aims to provide solutions for a better life for people in the tropics worldwide.
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Find out more about arts degrees available at the the Faculty of Arts at James Cook University. Please contact OzTREKK Admissions Officer Rachel Brady for more information about how you can study in Australia! Email Rachel at rachel@oztrekk.com or call 1-866-698-7355 (toll free in Canada).