Spirituality & Conflict

In The New Boy, the titular New Boy is taken to a Christian Church to be raised in, creating a conflict between the teachings of the church and his Aboriginal heritage. This experience is based upon the Director Warwick Thornton’s personal experiences, with him stating “Aboriginal people are generally happy to embrace Christianity alongside their own spiritual beliefs, but it doesn’t happen the other way round. Christianity must conquer”. This viewpoint is represented throughout the course of the film.

The New Boy participates in traditional aboriginal hunting practices, resulting in him killing two lambs, that symbolise Jesus Christ within the Church, enforcing the idea that the Church does not approve of aboriginal culture/they find it offensive to them. The juxtaposition between sister Mum’s expression and the New Boy’s shows that The New Boy (representing Aboriginal culture) is accepting of Christianity and wants to continue coexisting with it, while sister mum (as a nun, representing Christianity) doesn’t accept Aboriginal traditions.

In The New Boy, the titular character attempts to praise Jesus in his own manner by ‘gifting’ the statue with snakes. The snakes being squished and killed furthers the idea that while “Aboriginal people are generally happy to embrace Christianity alongside their own spiritual beliefs”, “it doesn’t happen the other way round.” Snakes are used as a representation of the Devil in Christianity, so from the perspective of the Church the New Boy’s offerings symbolise evil, while in contrast the New Boy views them as a gift from nature.