First Nations in Education

Celebrated by audiences at home and abroad, Indigenous artist Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was one of the most important and acclaimed voices to ever come out of Australia. Blind from birth, he found purpose and meaning through songs and music inspired by his community and country on Elcho Island in far northeast Arnhem Land. Living a traditional Yolngu life, his breakthrough album Gurrumul brought him to a crossroads as audiences and artists around the world began to embrace his music.

"From the creative team behind smash-hit SAMSON & DELILAH comes HERE I AM, a moving and hopeful story about the strength and resilience of women. Karen is a beautiful young woman with a dark past, but she's got potential and she knows it. Fresh out of prison, she finds herself on the streets with a burning desire to turn her life around but no one to call for help. Eventually she finds a haven at a shelter for women like herself. With the support of her new community of friends, Karen begins the journey of reconnecting with her estranged mother and her young daughter, and she is soon propelled to face the most difficult truths of her life." --Kanopy website

"MABO is the story of how one man fought the system and won; how one man affected the lives of all his people. Eddie Koiki Mabo was shocked to discover that the ownership of land his ancestors passed down on Murray Island in The Torres Strait Islands for over 15 generations was not legally recognised. Rather than accept this injustice he began an epic fight for Australian law to recognise traditional land rights. Koiki never lived to see his land returned to him, but the name Mabo is known in every household throughout the country. In 1992, at only 55, Koiki died of cancer. Six months later the Court overturned the notion of terra nullius. The story will be told from the perspective of Eddie’s wife, Bonita Mabo, and will use their love story as its backbone." -- Kanopy website

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a powerful true Australian story of hope and survival from acclaimed director, Phillip Noyce. At a time when it was Australian government policy to train aboriginal children as domestic workers and integrate them into white society, young Molly Craig (EVERLYN SAMPI) decides to lead her little sister and cousin (TIANNA SANSBURY as Daisy and LAURA MONAGHAN as Gracie) in a daring escape from their internment camp.

Rachel Perkins's film tells the story of three young Aboriginal sisters are reunited after the death of their mother, their lifestyles a world apart from each other. Eldest sister Cressy has found success as a classical singer and rejected her past life to pursue a career overseas. Middle daughter Mae resents Cressy's success and feels bitter at being the one whose had to stay behind to care for their senile mother. Youngest sister Nona is vibrant, sexually promiscuous, pregnant, and unlike her sisters, loyal to the memory of their mother. In the brief time the sisters spend together, they learn the painful memories and secrets that has distanced them from one another, and as the family's intrigue is revealed the sisters can finally unite together.

True Love. 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.

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.

The DJARN DJARNS is the story of a friendship between four young boys, the responsibility they feel for their culture and the love a young boy has for his father. (short film 26 minutes)
Year of production 2004

"The Sapphires is an inspirational tale set in the heady days of the late '60s about a quartet of young, talented singers from a remote Aboriginal mission, discovered and guided by a kind-hearted, soul-loving manager. Plucked from obscurity, the four spirited women with powerhouse voices - called The Sapphires - are given the opportunity to entertain American troops in Vietnam." -- Kanopy website

"The first story is set in the 1820s, the second in the 1890s, the third in the 1930s and the last in the 1980s. This drama series, made in 1981, won the United Nations Media Peace Prize and the Banff Grand Prix in 1983. In Australia, where it was screened by SBS and subsequently by the ABC, it won two Awgies and five Penguin Awards." -- Kanopy website

Made in 1983, "Wrong side of the road" is an award-winning road movie following two days in the lives of the now legendary Aboriginal Reggae band "No fixed address" and the heavy metal band US MOB. One of the first major feature films about urban Aboriginal culture, it provides an insight into the challenges faced by Aboriginal people and the resilience shown through the powerful medium of music.

A drama about the coming-of-age of three Aboriginal boys in Arnhem Land who inhabit two cultures at once: traditional Aboriginal culture from north-east Arnhem land (where the word 'Yolngu' comes from, meaning an Aboriginal person from that area) and also western culture. Botj (Sean Mununggurr), Lorrpu (John Sebastian Pilakui) and Milika (Nathan Daniels) are three Yolngu teenagers who once shared a dream of becoming great hunters together. Now aged fourteen, only Lorrpu still cares about their dream and he can see that their paths are diverging as Botj is a lost soul in trouble with the law and Milika is more interested in football and girls to care about traditional culture. The film's writer, Chris Anastassiades, (who also wrote the film Wog Boy) says one of the central themes of the film is the divide between the prosperity-driven, materialistic western ideal of life and the everyday reality faced by young Aboriginals like the characters in the movie: "This is an attempt to have a community represent itself. The Aborigines are culturally strong but have trouble with the creeping effect of our world...Our (white) kids have a context for the American influence. It doesn't cut across our Judeo-Christian ethic, it supports it: whatever you've got, get more of it. But the Aboriginal kids live in more isolation. They see the western ideal then the chasm between the ideal and them." (Commissioned by SBS Independent, in English and Gumatj, English subtitles) (2000).

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) collection of films is available on the Kanopy platform

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 journey.
Year of Production: 2012

A compelling program profiling an Indigenous Australian who, despite facing prejudice, ignorance and apathy, has made remarkable achievements in education. Bonita Mabo and her husband, the late Eddie Mabo, battled on behalf of the Torres Strait Islanders for the recognition of their native titles. Since the 1960s Bonita has worked in Indigenous organisations and at Townsville's Black Community School while raising ten children. As a descendant of the Stolen Generation, many of Bonita's battles have been highly personal and she continues to campaign for the recognition of her own people - the South Sea Islanders. Directed and written by Danielle MacLean; produced by Priscilla Collins. (A Film Australia National Interest production in association with SBS Independent, in English).

"Ripples From Wave Hill is the definitive first-hand account of Australia's first successful land rights campaign as told by the Aboriginal people who fought for their land and the radicals who joined with them." -- Kanopy website

One of the major works produced by the AIAS Film Unit, this documentary observes the profound effect on an Aboriginal community of political and bureaucratic decisions made far away. Although specific to time and place, the film is timeless and universal in its observations of a conflict between an Indigenous minority and a powerful government.
The film presents an insider’s view of events that followed an announcement made without warning on 13 March 1978 that the Queensland state government was taking over control of the Aboriginal community of Aurukun in the north of the State, displacing the Uniting Church which had managed the Aboriginal Reserve for 70 years. At the request of the community, filmmakers David and Judith MacDougall documented the events of the following weeks, as the community marshalled its supporters to resist the takeover, and a stream of lawyers, politicians, Church officials, government advisers and representatives of mainstream media arrived to talk with the Aboriginal Council and the community at large.
Ostensibly driven by a desire to access the mineral wealth in the Aurukun area, the state government was resistant to modifying its position, but intervention from the Federal government forced a sequence of compromises, though not always with the community’s knowledge or to their satisfaction. The film is as much about the political betrayal of the community’s interests, as it is a record of the community’s aspirations to protect and nurture its traditional culture and relationship to Country. A film by David and Judith MacDougall
Year of Production: 1979

Filmmaker Warwick Thornton investigates our relationship to the Southern Cross, in this fun and thought-provoking ride through Australia's cultural and political landscape. He takes us on a journey through this five-star constellation's astronomical, colonial and Indigenous history to the present day. For Aboriginal people, the meaning of this heavenly body is deeply spiritual. By contrast, the star-adorned Eureka Flag was emblematic of protest and defiance, a quality that caused it to be adopted by activists, and lately, the darker side of Australian nationalism.

When the British government colonised Australia, they completely ignored the original inhabitants, declaring the land empty of people - terra nullius. From then on, Aborigines were treated as non-citizens and denied the rights that others enjoyed. Vote Yes for Aborigines covers the historic fight for Aboriginal citizenship rights and the lead-up to the 1967 Referendum. The program marks the 40th anniversary of the Referendum, screening on its actual date. While many people believe that the 1967 Referendum gave Aborigines the right to vote, it in fact removed two sections of the constitution which discriminated against Aborigines. With the highest "yes" vote in Australia's history, 90.77% of voters agreed that Aborigines be counted in the census and that the Commonwealth Government take charge of Aboriginal affairs, effectively acknowledging Aboriginal people as citizens within their own country. Aborigines had fought for citizenship rights for over a century, but it was the coming together of the many Aboriginal associations and leagues in 1958 to form a national body, that finally gave impetus to the struggle. The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) attracted both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal membership and support from across all sections of Australian society. For ten years, they campaigned to convince the public and politicians of the need for Constitutional change. They capitalised on the global condemnation of Australia's treatment of its indigenous people and the media's growing interest in Aboriginal issues. The "Freedom Rides" of 1965 and the Gurindji strike at Wave Hill in 1966, highlighted Aboriginal living and working conditions and helped advance the crusade to set things right for indigenous Australians. More than just marking a time in history, Vote Yes for Aborigines questions the success of the Referendum and addresses current debates about what is meant by Australian citizenship and values and how they relate, if at all, to Aboriginal history, identity, and culture. Vote Yes for Aborigines hears from some of those involved with the 1967 Referendum and explores the social attitudes and influences that led to the event, featuring former Prime Ministers, politicians, historians and campaigners. (Commissioned by SBSi, in English) (Documentary).
Year of Production: 2007

Animated traditional stories explained by the Elders including the Dolphin NSW and the Wanka Manapulpa Minyma, WA.

Episode summary: Australia's leading rock art expert says this precious heritage could disappear within fifty years unless governments take action. Film legend Jack Thompson has joined calls to preserve this history before it's too late. Court action against a well known newspaper columnist who questioned the Indigenous credentials of light skinned Aboriginal people has created a furore over the issue of Aboriginality. Amid the debate, we ask Indigenous Australians whether skin colour determines your cultural identity. In Victoria, we head to Lake Condah, where the Gunditjmara people are blending ancient and contemporary science to discover new species. And we catch up with the Pigram Brothers as they tour the country with singer Alex Lloyd with songs they've sung for the film Mad Bastards.

In an intimate conversation with Living Black, the Page brothers reveal how they made their way from a housing commission in Brisbane to directing and composing the Indigenous performance for the Sydney Olympic Games. They tell Karla Grant about experiencing racism, breaking into the contemporary art world and the art of bringing Indigenous stories to the rest of the world. "Aboriginal story telling is a huge part of Aboriginal life. It's not even a responsibility it's just something in your immune system." - Stephen Page.

Redfern Now is 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.
Series 1 : 6 episodes

Redfern Now is 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.
Series 2 : 6 episodes

In this series, Ernie Dingo explores the revival, maintenance and creation of languages which are in a constant state of change. He reveals the complex balance between language and relationship to country, and discovers how this balance has been affected since European colonisation.

Waabiny Time (Series 2) is a children’s variety program that celebrates Noongar Language in a community and family themed environment. The presenters, Kylie Farmer and Lee West, entertain children between ages 3 to 6 and take them on a colourful adventure with stories, songs, dance and craft activities.

Digital resources tagged with ‘Indigenous Australia’