Big Girls Don’t Cry: Wouldn't change a thing

The bravery of the family who, with Mariah, must live with kidney disease every day, is unmistakable. The love and dedication of Mariah’s parents in supporting their daughter is imperative to the young girl’s well-being, and as the doctor tells us, a kidney transplant is a treatment rather than a cure.

Big Girls Don't Cry synopsis

A moving documentary about Indigenous women living with kidney disease.

Big Girls Don't Cry curator's notes

The prevalence of kidney disease is overwhelming in Indigenous communities, with Darwin having an incidence ten times higher than anywhere else in the country, with 80 per cent of that number being Aboriginal. It is difficult to watch the impact of renal disease on Mariah, who has lived with it since she was a baby, as well as elder and activist Essie Coffey OAM, who in her final years lived with renal disease. The title Big Girls Don’t Cry comes from an affirmation Essie Coffey’s family uses in the film. Essie Coffey eventually succumbed to a common cold, her immune system so weak she could not fight it off.

This is a very moving film, and the strength of women – Essie Coffey of the Muruwari clan, Mariah Swan of the Kamilaroi clan, Glenda Kerinaiau of the Tiwi clan – who lived with, and continue to live with, renal disease touches your heart.

Notes by Romaine Moreton

Education notes

This clip shows Mariah nine years after receiving a donor kidney. The clip opens with an image of the newspaper article that told of 'Mariah’s second chance’. A dissolve reveals 10-year-old Mariah talking with her mother about her karate trophies and then playing ball with her family. Her father is shown taking her to the hospital for a regular check-up. A doctor, in interview, explains why Mariah must take special drugs throughout her life. Angie, Mariah’s mother, speaks of her gratitude for the transplant and, with some distress, of how she blamed herself for Mariah’s disease.

Educational value points

• This clip provides testimony, through the images of Mariah living a healthy and active life, to the positive outlook for children who receive a kidney transplant. Mariah is living a healthy and active life with a transplanted kidney she received as an infant. The prospects for quality of life and long-term outcomes for such children have greatly improved over the last 30 years.

• Mariah is one of the fortunate Australians to have received a kidney transplant that has saved her life, although it requires her, like all transplant recipients, to take daily doses of immunosuppressant medication. These drugs are to prevent the body from rejecting the new kidney and, as the doctor explains, Mariah will have to take them for as long as she has the kidney in her.

• The clip refers to side-effects experienced by people who take immunosuppressant drugs and shows a doctor checking Mariah for adverse side-effects. These effects vary with each individual. Among the less critical side-effects are puffiness and roundness of the face, unwanted hair growth, above-normal weight gain, mood swings, overgrowth of gums and gum infection and acne. More serious side-effects include an increased risk of infection.

• Chronic illness can place great psychological stress on family members and the filmmaker reveals Angie’s anguish in a moving scene where she recalls the guilt she felt during Mariah’s illness. Such feelings are not uncommon for parents of a child with an illness, who ask themselves if they have caused the disease or could have done something to prevent it. In most cases of kidney disease they could neither have caused nor prevented it.

• The kidneys perform the essential function of removing waste products and extra water from the blood, which are then flushed from the body in the form of urine. They also regulate blood pressure, balance essential chemicals such as sodium and potassium, produce hormones to help bones grow and keep the blood healthy by making new red blood cells. Damage to the kidneys impairs their capacity to perform these functions and wastes build up in the blood.

• The clip is from the documentary Big Girls Don’t Cry, produced by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) about Indigenous women living with kidney disease. Established in 1980 and owned by the Indigenous people of central Australia, the Association’s primary purpose is to represent Indigenous Australians in film and television. This film is in the form of an informational report and its purpose is also to persuade Aboriginal people to seek medical advice.

Education notes provided by The Learning Federation and Education Services Australia