The New Boy - Culture clash

“Amen.”

Part of the impact of colonialism throughout the world is the attempt to eradicate indigenous cultures. It happened in the US and Canada in regard to First Nations and Native Americans. It also was very present in Australia with Aboriginal people. The church has played a key role in that process. The New Boy, from writer-director Warick Thornton, comes from that world of cultural confrontation.

A nine-year-old Aboriginal boy (Aswan Reid) is captured and delivered (in a sack) to a remote orphanage that is being run by Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett). Nominally, the orphanage is led by a priest, but he has died, and Sister Eileen has taken it upon herself to keep it going without him, sending reports back in his name.

The New Boy is in a very strange, new world. He knows no English. The customs are new to him. The other boys are all different from him, because they have been acculturated/indoctrinated. The food is strange. And he is cut off from the world that he knew.

Courtesy of Vertical- Cate Blanchett as Sister Eileen, Aswan Reid as New Boy

Except that he has powers. The film creates a bit of magical realism to show how he is connected to the belief system of the Aboriginal people. He can summon up a spark that illuminated the darkness. And he has the ability to heal.

The film focuses on the New Boy’s journey in this environment. The most bizarre thing he discovers is a new carved Christ delivered to be hung on the cross in the chapel. The dark wood sculpture is about the same color as his own skin. He seems to connect with this sculpture on a visceral level—and is in awe as spikes are driven into its hands.

The New Boy spends most of the film, not rebelling or fighting against what seems to him to be a strange world, but just observing and trying to see how his world (with its mystical elements) relates to it. He even, in his own way, tries to connect physically with Christ (as he knows him from the crucifix). He is sustained by the mystical powers he has brought with him from his understanding of reality.

Courtesy of Vertical- Cate Blanchett as Sister Eileen, Aswan Reid as New Boy

However, the powers he possesses might be seen as a challenge to the perception of reality held by Sister Eileen. Soon, she decides he needs to be baptized. The waters of baptism serve to extinguish the spark that brings light into the New Boy’s life, dooming him to have to conform to the White world.

The story doesn’t really give us backstories. That works for the New Boy; his journey in this new world is what matters. However, I’d have really liked more about Sister Eileen. I’m not sure how she came to feel that she should hide the fact of the priest’s death. (Possibly, she was emotionally or romantically involved, but it’s never clear.) Within the church hierarchy a priest would be needed to provide leadership and, most importantly, sacraments. That she took it upon herself to continue on her own would help to give insight into the situation.

There is an indictment in this film of colonialism and it’s underlying racism that has so often forced cultural conformity and capitulation on indigenous peoples. That indictment is especially strong when it is directed at the church, an institution that should be founded on God’s love for all people. That the church has so often treated some people as less than human—less than God’s image—less than God’s children, is an offense that the church struggles with to this day.

A few years ago, Pope Francis went to the site of one of the residential schools in Canada and apologized for what the church had done to people of Canada’s First Nations. He said, “I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.” I suspect that wording can be applied to many places, not merely Canada. Francis offered in those words, a chance for all Christians to reconsider the way the church has allowed itself to be used by society to abuse and enslave others.