"Lindy Chamberlain undoubtedly shared Ned Kelly’s frustration at the suspension of the presumption of innocence. In truth, Lindy Chamberlain was subject to a sensational trail by media—perhaps even witch trial by media, as many in the public believed her to be one. The fact that the front page of the now-defunct Brisbane Telegraph was emblazoned with headlines such as “Scissors Killed Azaria” is testament that little has changed since Ned blew the whistle in 1880. For Janine Little, “the irrationality of public opinion reflected in the Australian media’s depiction of Lindy Chamberlain relies on the particular role of gender in the injustice that was done to her.”

Mother Chamberlain’s guilt was established prejudicially by the fact that she dressed her daughter in black (what kind of mother would do that?), was a Seventh-Day Adventist (isn’t that a cult who sacrifices BABIES!?), and that she failed to cry sufficiently for the taste of the Australian public. Grieving mothers should cry. Lots. Whilst Lindy Chamberlain was convicted and handed a life term in prison, her husband Michael—convicted of being an accessory after the fact for supposedly helping to dispose of the child’s body and conceal the heinous crime—received an 18-month suspended sentence. For anyone trying to defend Australia’s track record of fairness when it comes to its treatment of women, the way Lindy Chamberlain was depicted in the media for a wilfully voracious public, and treated by a constabulary and judicial system, makes the case difficult.

A widely held but mistaken belief that dingoes are simply too timid to attack humans is thought to have been the reason many of the general public were inclined to believe Lindy Chamberlain had, in fact, murdered her infant daughter. Of course, that was likely a factor, but, truth be told, a rather kitsch desire for uncontrollably sobbing grieving mothers and infant daughters dressed head-to-toe in white contributed, too.

Metamodernism explicitly advances the cause of dialogue, in contrast to the more dialectical Postmodern approach. Assuming that every situation involves just two primary opposing forces, Postmodernism pits these against one another until the superior force wins the day, its opposite vanquished. Dialogical thinking, however, supports the idea of negotiation between different positions. What if both Lindy Chamberlain and the dingo are blameless? It is perhaps the most palatable of all scenarios. What if Azaria, whose name means “Helped by God,” crawled from that tent in 1980, became lost ,and was taken in by kindly dingoes who raised her as one of their own? In Helped By Dog, we see no infanticide, no beastly behaviour from our much-loved wild dog and national symbol—just bad luck, compassion, and good old Aussie resilience."