9.5 Ned Kelly: The Man Behind the Metal

Reflection

It was important to choose a topic that I was motivated to research. I had been interested in Ned Kelly’s story for years before undertaking this research project, and it was a great excuse to learn more about him. I wanted to gain a better understanding of why Kelly is such a polarising figure in Australian culture. I wanted to investigate both sides of his story, while remaining aware of my own inevitable biases. I made a conscious decision to try to humanise Kelly as much as possible to see if the character he’d presented himself to be would stack up fairly against the many accusations linked to his name. I intentionally discussed Kelly’s historical accounts before addressing the questions surrounding Kelly’s character, and the potential issues in doing so. I hoped to create an authentic narrative for Kelly that listeners could empathise with, rather than only present a theoretical idea of a person through the opinions of others. Ned Kelly’s story illustrates brilliantly how multiple different ideas or perspectives of a person can be true; can co-exist. That’s what makes his story so fascinating. We still don’t have an answer to who he really was, and probably never will.