“Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time” is an experimental documentary filmed by Behrouz Boochani from inside the Manus Island detention camp. Manus Island is a part of Papua New Guinea, and Boochani along with many other asylum seekers have been detained on this island by the Australian government. The title of the documentary is significant. The Chauka bird is a beautiful bird that is special to the local people on Manus Island. The Chauka bird sings, and when it does, the locals know what time it is, and compose their day around its song. In Manusian culture, it is also believed that the Chauka bird can make predictions, and elders can interpret what the bird is saying about the future. This theme of time is of utmost relevance to the documentary. Prisoners on Manus Island do not know how many months or years they have to stay in the prison. Detainment is unlimited and indeterminate.
“Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time”-the title can then be read as a question, a plea, or a hopeless request. The reference to Chauka encompasses the bird as a custom and as a cultural concept.
Another significant aspect of the title is that the camp named a specific area of the detention center “Chauka.” In the camp, Chauka is a building with a scary reputation where prisoners are sent when there has been a conflict. Stories from Chauka include those of punishment and torture. The fact that the Australian government decided to name this division of the prison after the special Chauka bird reinforces colonial values as those in the position of power bastardized the name, which holds great meaning for the local people on the island.
The beliefs and customs around the Chauka bird serve as an analogy that is able to hauntingly but acutely capture the situation of those in the Manus Island prison camp and reflect the system of thought that the Australian government has in terms of treatment of asylum seekers and other subjects.
