I caught a show on the National Geopgraphic Channel today about Australian snakes. The host of the show was looking for snakes in the outback with help from the natives. At the start of the show this was shown and read by the narrator: “FOR OUR ABORIGINE VIEWERS: This film contains images of aborgines who may have since died.”
Can someone from Down Under explain this please?
Aboriginal people find images of deceased loved ones very distressing. I’ll have a poke about the internet to try and get some more details with you.
Not just seeing images of deceased persons, but also hearing their names can be distressing to members of some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The distress is compounded if the deceased person is a relative.
I don’t know anything about the origins of this tradition, unfortunately.
It’s a cultural thing, some Aboriginals are sensitive to seeing images, or hearing the voices, or the names of the deceased.
Cite: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) editorial policy (PDF 887KB) on page 46 point 10.11.5.