Cressy is the eldest of the three sisters and is acted by Rachael Maza. The arrival of Cressy is announced with her entering in a taxi and with Nona inside the house listening to the opera ‘Madame Butterfly’. The song ‘Ma

Nona wears wigs to shield herself and hide from the outside world, cover reality and create her own views. Throughout the movie, we see many different wigs, each depicting a distinct look and mood. During the film, the audience observes Nona maturing and understanding her family’s past, which has made them suffer, mainly because they’re aboriginal. It is after this that she ceases to wear the wigs and we see her as herself. When Nona returns home for the funeral, she discovers that Cressy is her natural mother, that she was conceived through a rape and that her father who she’d lovingly known as ‘the black prince’, is not worthy of such a title. It is through Nona’s love for her mother, that she is determined to see her ashes scattered on Turtle Island; she wants to set her mother free, despite Cressy and Mae’s objections and uninterest in the matter. Nona wades out to the island with the ashes of her mother through the cleansing waters of the sea; this is Nona’s catharsis, where she loses all inhibitions and sets her mind free. Mailman succeeds in portraying innocence in Nona and mixing it with vulgarity, emotion, and naivety to produce a young free-spirited, loving and confused character of an Aboriginal woman.

Some topics in this essay:
Rachael Maza, Trisha Norton-Thomas, Deborah Mailman, Review- Radiance, Cressy Mae’s, Mae Nona, Turtle Island, outside world, aboriginal women, inside house, women aboriginal, ‘madame butterfly’, aboriginal woman,