Indigenous Resources: Films, TV and Documentary

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.

In the near future, a species from ancient mythology known as the Hairypeople live amongst humans and battle for survival in a world that wants to silence, exploit and destroy them. When a series of violent, unexplained murders terrifies the city, the blame is pointed firmly in the direction of the Hairypeople. Can Koen, a man bestowed with a powerful gift and destined to become the Cleverman, learn to harness his power before everything around him crumbles?

A series of powerful, moving, funny, and bittersweet stories that explore contemporary inner city Indigenous life. They centre on a diverse group of individuals - exploring their strengths, flaws and resilience - and tell how their lives are changed by a moment's decision, an accident or a seemingly insignificant incident

Head of the family before his time, Odin Freeburn is being pulled in all directions. Can he let go of his past in time to save the future?

A sketch comedy show featuring Indigenous Australian writers and performers.

Producer: Keith Salvat
These animated films are based on Australian Aboriginal storytelling (oral histories) that have been maintained as a body of knowledge for over 40,000 years. There are 6 parts to the complete series, and each looks at unique indigenous stories, beautifully animated by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.

"Six-part series 8MMM Aboriginal Radio is a comedy about giving Aboriginal people a voice in a country with no ears and how, when all else fails, which it usually does, it's good to have a laugh. At the arse-end of the world, in the middle of nowhere, is Alice Springs - home to 8MMM

Jacob (2009) / Dena Curtis (12 min.)

Bluey, an angry young woman trapped in a life of violence, meets a mystery mentor who could change everything. (15 mins)

(Short film 14 min.)

From the Tiwi Islands, this part ghost story and part romance is about a man in love with a married women. (10 mins.)

Frank and Vinnie are modern day head hunters. They don't just want any heads, they want famous people, heads with a price on them and heads that will stop the nation dead. (33mins.)

Over one heartbreaking but empowering night, radio DJ Kenny realises that his job at an Aboriginal community radio station is about more than just playing music. (27mins.)

Nia's Melancholy tells of a young girl who lives in beautiful tropical North Queensland and who, after her sister's suicide, finds solace retreating into the recesses of her mind.

Harry and Mitch are two mates who go off to fight in the jungles of Papua New Guinea during World War II. (28mins.)

Fresh out of the academy, White Cop experiences his first taste of Aboriginal community life, as Black Cop puts him to the test. (5 mins.)

All that was left for the children of the dead was to remember.

Warwick Thornton’s satirical short film Mimi pokes fun at white art collectors who purchase Indigenous art purely for its investment value.
Short Drama (13 mins)

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In Arnhem Land, people believe that galka (dark heart person) is still living with us.
You will find them in the bushes with painting on their body. (10mins.)

Fantasy/Drama film ‧ 15 mins

This film documents the efforts made through activism and theatre to bring the cause of indigenous people to public notice, as a first step towards gaining land rights and better treatment. Redfern became a thriving and vibrant melting pot of politics, art and creativity. This is Darlene's tribute to those pioneers who were at the coal-face to bring about change.

George Rrurrambu, legendary frontman of the Warumpi Band, made an extraordinary contribution to contemporary Indigenous music and awakened the Australian consciousness of a third world in its own back yard.

Jack Buckskin is the teacher of an endangered language. From the northern Adelaide suburb of Salisbury, Jack's mission is to teach the Kaurna language, the language of his ancestors, to as many people as he can in his lifetime. But this is not easy. The language was driven to near extinction over a century ago. Now, Jack and fellow language speakers are sculpting a new Kaurna language and culture, and through that seeking to bring a new way of being to the youth of suburban Adelaide, in the form of a new Aboriginal identity, and with that, hope.

More than 80 years after the brutal slaughter of 100 or more Aboriginal people in Central Australia, their descendants relate their story. Known as 'the last massacre', expeditions set out in 1928 to mow down innocent people across the traditional lands of the Warlpiri people and their neighbours to avenge the killing of dingo trapper Fred Brooks at the hands of a Warlpiri man, Bullfrog, for taking liberties with Brook's wife.

1942, Croker Island, Arafura Sea. As the Japanese bomb Australia's north, 95 Aboriginal children and their missionary carers make a remarkable journey to safety across the Australian continent. This 'little' party sets off on a journey that takes them from Croker Island through Arnhem Land to a Methodist farm at Otford on the edge of Sydney. They travel for 44 days covering 3,000 miles by foot, boat, canoe, truck and train. This is their story, in their own words: a truly heroic and untold journe

Palm Island was established as an Aboriginal settlement in 1918 and it soon became known as Punishment Island. Throughout its history the island has been plagued by controversy, most notably in 1999 when it was entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the most violent place on earth outside of a combat zone.

The story of an Australian Aboriginal man who should be as famous as Ned Kelly. In 1894, Jandamarra led a rebellion against invading pastoralists in defence of his people's ancient land and culture. Until his death in brutal retribution, this formidable Bunuba warrior waged a 3 year guerrilla war, earning him both the admiration of his people and international notoriety.

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.

First Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. The series explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world's greatest empire. Over seven episodes, First Australians depicts the true stories of individuals - both black and white - caught in an epic drama of friendship, revenge, loss and victory in Australia's most transformative period of history.

"In 1972 Marlene Cummins fell in love with the leader of the Australian Black Panther Party. With the break up of that relationship, she spiralled into a cycle of addiction that left her on the streets. 40 years later Marlene travels to a gathering of international Black Panthers in New York. The journey takes her back in time, to her love affair, her time with the Panthers and the question of the place of women in the movement.

The Southern Cross has become much more than just the five stars we see in the night sky in this part of the world. The celestial body has been claimed by some as a symbol of Australian-ness thanks to its use on the national flag and following on as a popular tattoo, but its meaning to and significance for Indigenous people stretches back 100,000 years. Filmmaker Warwick Thornton, who controversially declared the Southern Cross was being used "like a swastika" in 2009, examines the importance of the star pattern as part of what it means to be a contemporary Australian for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Proving age should be no barrier to learning to read and write, this documentary from writer/director Erica Glynn looks at the work of the Literacy for Life Foundation in regional Australia. The organisation is attempting to make inroads into the estimated 40 to 65 percent illiteracy rate among Indigenous adults. In My Own Words follows a 13-week course held in the tiny outback town of Brewarrina, NSW, as the students and their teachers – locals who have been given classroom training – learn together. It’s a slow and difficult process, but the determination of the participants to succeed make this an inspiring watch.

This film from director Tyson Mowarin highlights the battle undertaken by the people of Western Australias Pilbara region to protect the Burrup Peninsula. The sacred site, also known as Murujuga, is home to the worlds largest collection of rock art but is under threat from the mining industry. Connection to Country delves into the events that led to the current situation, and shows the deep bond the Indigenous people of the region have to the land and their efforts to preserve their culture for all Australians to enjoy.

The majority of Australians grew up with a very one-sided history of our nation. From white settlement to today, that account has mostly been viewed from a single perspective. Occupation Native sets out to change that. Using a range of approaches – some serious, some humorous – filmmaker Trisha Morton-Thomas adjusts the narrative to include the experience and history of Australia’s Indigenous community. There’s always more than one way to look at a story, and this documentary presents – without judgement – a perspective that’s been disregarded for too long.