The Cronulla Riots Analysis

The Cronulla Crusades?
In a society wracked by fear, Jaya Balendra consummately delivers her interpretation of how mass hysteria spurs mob mentality and injustice in Sydney’s southern shire. Blake Micallef investigates.
Australian born. Australian blood. Australian pride. Australian, but not Australian?
Cultural diversity and acceptance are freely espoused as the key tenets of the Australian identity, however what ensued at Cronulla in 2005 is a smear upon our egalitarian ideals. It is in this light that the documentary sets out to explicitly highlight how fragile race relations remain in Australia’s multicultural hotpots.
Though The Cronulla Riots: Day that Shocked the Nation (2013), may appear to directly appeal to a narrow target audience of Sydney-siders, it also effectively touches the broader Australian community and provokes our perception of Australian identity. Directed by Jaya Balendra, the documentary challenges the modern racial misconceptions that fuel mob mentality – where superficial tolerance represents a façade for more dire and abhorrent intentions.
Australian identity shapes the cornerstone of the documentary, and it’s through the seminal voices interviewed 8 years after the riots that this salient message is questioned. Australian’s value a “fair
The instigation of expert opinion is framed through the seminal white Australian voices that authenticate and ratify Balendra’s intentions of representing the Muslim Australians as victims of ill-sentiment and bigotry. Consequentially, the compulsion to ostracise the Australian middle-eastern community becomes an “un Australian” constant of Balendra’s documentary. And it’s through this deliberate directorial ploy where the underlying message of the film is