The new mini series about convict settlement in Australia that doesn't mention aboriginal people.

Seriously?

You might have heard of a new TV show called Banished.

It’s a 7-part BBC series starring David Wenham that will air on Foxtel this week.

The show focuses on the British colonisation of Australia and is, according to the BBC, “a story of survival set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788.”

But there’s one teeny tiny major flaw in the ‘stark historical reality’: There is not a single Indigenous character.

Not one.

No main cast. No supporting cast. No extras. No un-credited background lurkers. Nothing.

If the story Banished is to be believed, Australian settlement was basically the story of convicts and non-convicts fighting over who owned the limited number of ladies on the island.

The creator of Banished, Jimmy McGovern told Fairfax the reason he decided to not include Indigenous  characters was because it would have been too hard to develop them in the show’s short time frame.

McGovern by the way, is one of the brains behind the ABC series Redfern Now.

“It is difficult to exaggerate how important it is to get the portrayal of indigenous Australians right,” McGovern said.

“The time-frame in Banished is very short – something just over two weeks – and there is not sufficient time to develop and do justice to indigenous characters.”

The particular era which was chosen as the subject is an extremely crucial point in Australian history — and even more pivotal in the lives of Indigenous Australians ever after.

Aboriginals were slaughtered in the tens of thousands.

Their lands, food, freedoms were stolen.

They died in droves thanks to new strains of disease introduced by the convicts — the exact toll of which may never be known, but may be in the millions.

This just doesn’t seem like the kind of thing to ignore in your drama about 1788.

The show aired in Britain earlier this year to mixed reviews. It is due to air on Foxtel in Australia later this month.

Do you think Banished whitewashes Australian history?

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