Catalog Search Results
Description
Produced in association with Waringarri Aboriginal Arts at Kununurra in Western Australia, this moving documentary features three women who talk about their paintings as an expression of their relationship to their country. The women share a sense of belonging to their place and express this belonging through dance and song and all of their artistic expressions. On a trip into the bush around Cockatoo Lagoon near Kununurra, they explain the stories...
Description
This observational documentary follows an episode in the routine life on Collum Collum cattle-station in northern New South Wales. But, as the filmmaker notes, its a story that could have occurred anywhere. The film follows the attempts by Sunny Bancroft and other men in the Collum Collum Aboriginal community to remove a failed engine from a car and replace it with a refurbished engine from another car. Its a familiar rural task where the expectation...
Description
Bringing to light the heartbreaking experiences of the Wenberg sisters - Adelaide, Valerie (Linow) and Rita, SERVENT OR SLAVES celebrates their fortitude in pursuing justice for the crimes committed against them. Their firsthand accounts of officially sanctioned enslavement reveal the true intent of the government policy of 'protection' prevalent throughout the twentieth century. Theirs is a David and Goliath battle, waged not only for personal healing,...
Description
David Tranter continues his series of outstanding films which document the Dreaming stories and history of his Alyawarr heritage. As in Tranters other films - Boomerang Today, Crookhat and Camphoo, Karlu Karlu and Willaberta Jack - the stories are told by Elders in the community. In this case three old men, Donald (Crookhat) Akemarr Thompson, Alec Apetyarr Peterson and Casey Akemarr Holmes travel by four-wheel drive out to a surprising strip of...
Description
Aboriginality is a key issue facing all Australians but it is an exceedingly complex one and potentially divisive. The focus on Aboriginal identity in this program aims to stimulate deeper understanding of Aboriginality, the attitudes of non-Indigenous Australians towards Indigenous people, racism in Australia (both individual and institutional) and the changes needed in attitude and action to achieve justice. To weave these issues into a coherent...
Description
In 1971 Wandjuk Marika organised a Djang’kawu ceremony at Yirrkala. It was to be a memorial for his father, Mawalan, who died in 1967. Mawalan had been the highly respected head of the Rirratjingu clan, for whom the Djang’kawu are primary Creator Ancestors. The two Djang’kawu Sisters came from across the sea and travelled through northeast Arnhem Land, shaping the landscape and giving birth to the first children of the Dhuwa moiety. The Djang’kawu...
Description
A portrait of Warlpiri Elder and Lawman, Francis Jupurrurla Kelly – a pioneer of Indigenous filmmaking in central Australia. Jupurrurla was the producer of highly regarded TV programs such as Bush Mechanics, Manyu Wana and Coniston, and was a key figure in the foundation of the Warlpiri Media Association which grew out of a pirate TV station in the 1970s. Warlpiri Media is operating to this day as PAW Media (Pintubi, Anmatjere and Warlpiri Media),...
Description
This is an archival record film of a circumcision ceremony at Yirrkala in 1972. On many occasions over the three weeks prior to the main ceremony the boys to be circumcised are sung over and beautifully painted with clan designs. As the final day approaches the paintings become ever more elaborate. No translation or documentation is included in this archival record.
Description
A compelling account of the return by a group of dispossessed Aboriginal people to their ancient tribal grounds in the Northern outreaches of this continent. This highly provocative cinema verité work shows the rebuilding of relationships through a shared pilgrimage to ancestral lands and a traditional Aboriginal ceremony, despite occasional failures of cross-cultural communication. It reflects a community in transition through the journey of a...
10) Green bush
Description
Every night, Indigenous radio announcer and DJ, Kenny, hosts the Green Bush show for Aboriginal communities. Isolated at the station, he takes requests for music, while at the same time coping with the pressure of the community around him. Based on his own experiences as a radio DJ in Alice Springs in central Australia, Warwick Thornton (later director of the award-winning feature, Samson and Delilah) made an international impact with this graceful...
11) Ningla ANa
Description
A rare additon to the study of Australian History. Made in 1972, this documentary records the events surrounding the establishment of the Aboriginal tent embassy on the lawns of Parliament House. It incorporates interviews with black activists, the work of the National Black Theatre, Aboriginal Legal Service and Aboriginal Medical Service, plus footage from the demonstrations and arrests at the embassy. This is the only film to focus on the tent...
12) The broken shore
Author
Description
Shaken by a scrape with death, big-city detective Joe Cashin is posted away from the Homicide Squad to a quiet town on the South Australian coast where he grew up. Carrying physical scars and not a little guilt, he spends his time playing the country cop, walking his dogs, and thinking about how it all was before. When a prominent local is attacked and left for dead in his own home, Cashin is thrust into a murder investigation. The evidence points...
13) Homeland Story
Description
HOMELAND STORY is an intimate portrait of Donydji, a small Indigenous community in North East Arnhem Land in the far north of Australia. Homelands are situated on the land of the people who live there. They are of central importance to their identity and culture. The film charts the Donydji community's transition from nomadic life to the digital age, from the 1960s to the present day. One family is featured, across three generations, from the traditional...
Author
Description
For both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, Captain James Cook is a figure of great historical significance. Non-Aboriginal histories of Australia generally regard Captain Cook as the person who discovered Australia, although historical records show that he was not the first European to step onto Australian shores. Contemporary Aboriginal accounts of Captain Cook that survive bear little relationship to this history upheld by non-Aboriginal...
15) Bitter and Sweet
Description
How does the startling beauty - and humour - of Aboriginal art intertwine with reverberations of the past and our present?
16) Home and Away
Description
What does it mean to be 'at home' for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? Is it where you live, or the 'country' you are exiled from?
Description
In 1965 and 1967, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies sponsored film trips by the then Commonwealth Film Unit to the Western Desert region of Australia. The object of these trips was to film the daily life of nomadic Aboriginal people living in the Gibson Desert of Central Australia. Although this land is one of the most arid regions of Australia, the people who lived there regarded it as rich in resources. This longform film series is...
20) Desert People
Description
Desert People was shot in 1965 in the Gibson Desert of the Australian Western Desert. There was still a handful of family groups perhaps three or four, living a nomadic hunter-food gatherer life, somewhere in the heart of the desert. Desert People tells simply of a day in the life of two families of the Western Desert. Djagamara and his family were filmed where they were found. They were camped by an unusually plentiful supply of water, a pool in...
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