The Racism On Survivor Doesn’t Come As A Surprise When You Consider The Show’s Premise

There’s no denying that Australian Survivor

Heroes vs Villains Benjamin Law Paige Donald’s George Mladenov’s increasingly unhinged mind-games Liz Parnov’s  unanimous Sole Survivor win Survivor Mimi Tang Stevie Khouw invoking (unconsciously or not) old, racist anti-Asian tropes Rogue Rubin stated Nina Twine

This white woman on Survivor just told a black woman to her face that she's more African American than her… #SurvivorAU pic.twitter.com/TCkXXC4Cru

— Jordan Woodson #TheKillerSweep (@jordanjwoodson) January 30, 2023

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1/2Survivor sure loves its random tribal aesthetics. Source: Network 10.

2/2Survivor sure loves its random tribal aesthetics. Source: Network 10.

Survivor 300 year old “colonial fairytale” Robinson Crusoe tribal rules and rituals Survivor colonial relationship to land  erase the Indigenous cultures of the locations thesis about it Survivor

Fa’amolemole Australian Survivor ^{th th} Survivor Australian Survivor Survivor

casting really said: oh you wanted diversity? here’s a big game hunter, a racist and an anti-lockdown clown #SurvivorAU

— liz burn it all down party in mourning AGAIN (@teamshonee) February 13, 2023

Australian Survivor Australian Survivor uninhabited  that   terra nullius make the effort beyond simplistic representation Benjamin Law and Australian Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia has recently committed to Australian Survivor Survivor Massimo Amerena is a settler living, learning, working and consuming TV on Wurundjeri Country. You can read more of his work here.

The post The Racism On Survivor Doesn’t Come As A Surprise When You Consider The Show’s Premise appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .

Season 10, , has provided some thrilling entertainment. Definite highlights have been  and  ground-breaking challenge win by communicating through Auslan,  at tribals, and endurance in winning the final challenge and her . But we’ve also seen some of ’s tendency to reproduce Australian’s special brand of overt and casual racism. This season, we saw all of the three Asian players – , , and Ben – swiftly relegated to the bottom of their respective alliances and labelled as “suss”, “shifty”, “silver-tongued”, “sneaky” or “a snake” by the white majorities, — further insulting because the game itself is literally predicated on lying, strategy and subterfuge for individual survival. We also had to endure an extraordinarily blatant, but casually delivered racist moment of dialogue. In the opening episode, white player that she was “more African American” than the only Black woman in the cast, — to her face. Rogue said this because she was born in South Africa and worked in the States. Yep, wow. It’s difficult to imagine such an obviously outrageous comment passing without challenge on the American franchise, especially given that Nina is a Black woman from North Carolina, a state with a deep legacy of racial trauma and slavery. As disappointing as these incidents are, a more fundamental and pervasive component of race and superiority within that struck me more deeply this season was its sustained erasure of indigeneity, culture and Country. I am certainly not the first to point out the international franchise’s problematic (to say the least) appropriation and mish-mash of African, Asian and Pacific cultural symbolism, terms and icons – and this season has certainly been no different. Season 10’s introduction montage is set to ’s iconic but culturally ambiguous theme song, and features recurring motifs of silhouettes of men swinging weapons by torch light and a person in white and black face paint staring menacingly at the camera. We take it that the brave, muscular contestants – or “castaways” as the show calls them, probably in reference to  – are entering a beautiful but primitive, dangerous environment governed by . Almost as soon as it aired in 1999, scholars and media critics have commented on the franchise’s inherently  and its tendency to where it’s filmed. One legend from Sydney even wrote a . bombards its audiences with exotic-but-primitive aesthetics; it’s hard to put a finger on where you’ve come across similar images or symbols before, but the audience knows they’re not from the West. Examples include “tribal” names and adornments, player’s torches, tribal council sets, and immunity idols featuring bones or teeth. Designs of these vary season to season, but rarely (if ever) do they speak to or draw from the local culture of the setting. Beyond the player-chosen merged tribal name , season 10 does not appear to explicitly honour or acknowledge Samoan culture as it returned for the first time since 2017 — despite the fact that throughout the 19 and 20 centuries, Samoa was subjected to the control and power struggles of colonial powers Britain, Germany and the United States. ’s cultural erasure and colonial relationship to land was no more apparent in the somewhat unique circumstances of seasons eight and nine (aired in 2021 and 2022), which were filmed domestically due to COVID-19 and travel restrictions. producers are generally coy about the precise location of each season, but a little research revealed the 2021 season was filmed in on Kalkadoon and Mitakoodi Country, near Mount Isa in western Queensland. Season 2022 was filmed on Gudjula Country near the town of Charters Towers, close to Townsville. Beyond a cookie-cutter single slide at the beginning of each season and accompanying Instagram post acknowledging the respective Traditional Owner groups, Aboriginal culture was not incorporated in the show at all. It was disappointing — but probably not surprising for fans of the international franchise — that producers of Endemol Shine chose to regurgitate the global franchise’s patchwork of cultural appropriation rather than take the opportunity to showcase the world’s longest continuously living cultures. Instead, presented the western Queensland outback as a harsh, dangerous, and most importantly uninhabitable and landscape. And yes, I know, as with any reality TV hit, we accept a veneer of unreality, so as viewers we can be sucked into believing the contestants are truly isolated, but really we know that the crew’s camp or a town is never  far away. However, in the Australian context, pretending the contest takes place in a nameless and people-less landscape is even more problematic. The Kalkadoon, Mitakoodi, and Gudjula people were living healthy and sustainable lives on their respective Country for thousands of generations.British colonisers used the legal fiction of  to justify assuming sovereignty over the Australian continent, claiming that the land was uninhabited. So, for an Australian reality series to be produced in 2021 and 2022 with virtually zero acknowledgment of Indigenous Traditional Owners and cultures of the land they shoot and compete on is essentially erasing them again.  Respectful and responsible cultural consultation and inclusion can be initially hard and uncomfortable for non-Indigenous people conducting business in Australia. It requires fair compensation for time, emotional labour and use of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. But when Australian TV producers  and move  or inclusions of Blak contestants, they can craft takes on globally successful media that can’t be done anywhere else. As  have pointed out, increasing the cultural diversity of contestants — as the US franchise — would be a great first step. But really, more than 20 years into (and 44 seasons in the US), the franchise needs to sort out its cultural appropriation and colonial fantasy bullshit. will be just as thrilling without a bunch of made up and appropriative set dressing and tribal imagery.