Subject Guide: First Nations Resources at the AFTRS Library

Directed by Warwick Thornton
Australian western set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a white man in self-defence and goes on the run as a posse gathers to hunt him down.

Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons enquiry. What seems like a simple light duties investigation opens a web of crime and corruption. Jay must pull his life together and bury his differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone.

Mabo tells the story of Eddie Koiki Mabo, the Torres Strait Islander who left school at fifteen, yet spearheaded the High Court challenge that once and for all overthrew the notion of terra nullius. Hand in hand with this David and Goliath legal battel is the tender love story of Koiki and Bonita, the woman he met as a teenager, and loved through thirty years of marriage and the raising of ten children. It tells of the deep love and partnership that fuelled their fight for Australian law to recognise traditional land rights. Although Koiki never lived to hear the High Court's decision that returned his land to him, the name Mabo has become known nationwide"--Container.

An inspirational tale set in the heady days of the late 60s when four young, talented singers from a remote Aboriginal mission are discovered and guided by an unlikely manager. This feel-good hit is based on the successful Australian stage musical and inspired by a remarkable true story.

Using gesture and dance, with minimal dialogue, Spear follows a young Aboriginal man named Djali from North East Arnhem Land to the streets of Sydney on his quest to understand what it means to be a man with ancient traditions in a modern world.

JASPER JONES is a coming of age story about Charlie Bucktin, a bookish boy of 14. On the night that Jasper Jones, the town's mixed race outcast shows him the dead body of young Laura Wishart, Charlie's life is changed forever.

Pete lives with his grandfather in an old abandoned outdoor cinema in the desert. When the old drive-in is threatened with demolition, ten year old Pete takes off to the city with his best mate Kalmain, to save his home. But the boys get lost in the Australian outback. Starving and thirsty, Pete has to remember some of the old bush skills his grandfather taught him to survive.

Indigenous cowboy detective Jay Swan returns to his outback home, to solve the murder of a teenage girl whose body is found under the highway trucking route out of town. Alienated from both the white dominated police force and his own community, including his teenaged daughter, who he discovers is connected with the murdered girl, Jay stands alone in his determination to fight back for his town and his people.

Tired of her single-parent Aboriginal upbringing in a small New South Wales town, fair-skinned and blue eyed Lena gets on a bus for Sydney looking for her Irish father. At the same time, Vaughn, a forestry worker in a minimum security gaol, escapes to go to visit his mother who is ill, possibly dying. The two are thrown together in the middle of nowhere and gradually learn to embrace each others differences through encounters with shopkeepers, passers-by and even policemen.

Samson and Delilah's world is small- an isolated community in the Central Australian desert. When tragedy strikes they turn their backs on home and embark on a journey of survival. Lost, unwanted and alone they discover that life isn't always fair, but love never judges.

In a big old airy Queensland house perched above the sea, three sisters gather for the funeral of their mother. Cressy is a famous and brittle opera singer who left years earlier and never came back. Mae is the bitter one who stayed and looked after the old woman, more out of duty than love. Nona is the youngest, who ran away in her teens to find her father and returned with an urgent problem.

In the Summer of 1965 a young man is filled with the life of the idyllic old pearling port Broome - fishing, hanging out with his mates and his girl. However his mother returns him to the religious mission for further schooling. After being punished for an act of youthful rebellion, he runs away from the mission on a journey that ultimately leads him back home.

In a remote Aboriginal community, 10 year old Daniel yearns to be a gangster, like the male role models in his life. Skipping school, getting into fights and running drugs for Linden, who leads the main gang in town

Here I Am' is driven by three generations of Aboriginal women - Karen Lee Burden, her mother Lois and her daughter Rosie. When Karen is released from prison, through a series of chance encounters the women learn that freedom is hard to find when hearts are still broken.

Director: Steven McGregor
Bringing to light the heartbreaking experiences of Rita Wright, Rita Wenberg, Violet West, Adelaide Wenberg and Valerie Linow, Servant or Slave is a film of courage, strength and the fortitude to pursue justice for the crimes committed against them after being stolen from their families, trained to be domestic servants and forced into indentured labour.

Blackfella Charlie is getting older, and he's out of sorts. The Government Intervention is making life more difficult on his remote community, what with the proper policing of whitefella laws that don't generally make much sense, and Charlie's kin and ken seeming more interested in going along with things than doing anything about it. So Charlie takes off, to live the old way, but in so doing, sets off a chain of events in his life that has him return to his community chastened, and somewhat the wiser.

Three young Aboriginal girls are snatched from their mothers arms and sent to a remote settlement at Moore River. 1500 miles away from home, distanced from their mothers and forced to adapt to a strange new world, the girls attempt the impossible and embark on a daring escape.

"Ten canoes tells the story of the people of the Arafura swamp, in their language, and is set a long time before the coming of the Balanda, as white people were known. Dayindi covets one of the wives of his older brother. To teach him the proper way, he is told a story from the mythical past, a story of wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery, bungling mayhem and revenge gone wrong.

Three teenage Aboriginal boys, best friends. live in a community by the sea. Each has a different approach to life.

Set in the Australian outback in 1922, [this film] tells the story of The Fanatic, the Follower and the Philosopher - three white men who use an indigenous tracker to pursue a fugitive.

The story of the friendship between Aboriginal Dumby Red and white Gary Black, both players on the local Aussie rules football team.

TJ's quest to find the son he's never known, takes him on a journey across the remote and stunning Kimberley landscape. On the road, TJ questions his life of violence...