AustLit

'From the 1920s onwards, when motor vehicles displaced camels as a mode of supply in central Australia, camels gradually went feral. As this film shows, however, in the 1960s, the Pitjantjara were making good use of camels to facilitate their travels and connections with other areas.'

'This remarkable film, shot in 1968 (released in 1969) follows a group of Pitjantjara men, led by “Captain”, a veteran cameleer, who travel out from their base at Areyonga Settlement, to capture a wild camel, tame it and add it to their domestic herds. They then use camels to help transport a large group of people from Areyonga to Papunya, three days’ walk away.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'This film is a fine example of the many films that Roger Sandall made for the Institute of Aboriginal Studies in which he recorded Aboriginal craft techniques and skills – in this case, the process by which two men, Djurkuwidi and Wangamaru, work together to make a bark canoe.'

'Near the end of the Wet season, in the coastal swamps of Buckingham Bay in Arnhem Land, thousands of magpie geese fly in to build nests in the reeds. Canoes are used to travel through the swamps to hunt geese and collect eggs.'

'The film meticulously follows the process from the initial choice of the stringy-bark gum tree from which a huge sheet of bark is stripped, through to the completed canoe being poled through the swamps. Sandall’s narration explains details of the canoe-making process, and reflects on how techniques have changed from earlier times.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'The many films that Roger Sandall made for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in the 1960s and early 70s were primarily for archival purposes, and not for wide public release. Coniston Muster is one of the few intended for a general audience.'

'Superbly photographed over a relatively short period of six weeks, the film introduces us to Coniston Station – an 840 square mile property, northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. It is an arid area of red semi-desert, and can sustain only about four head of cattle per square mile.'

'At the time of making the film, Bryan Bowman held the lease for Coniston and for a couple of other properties. He had been living in the Northern Territory since the 1920s when he started work as a jackeroo.'

'The Head Stockman at the station was Coniston Johnny, who had spent his working life with cattle, on many stations. He provides a commentary for much of the film, responding spontaneously to images as they appear on-screen.'

'The film documents episodes in Coniston’s annual cattle muster, and Johnny talks about the skills that Aboriginal stockmen bring to the work, compared with white men.'

'Made at the request of the people of Mornington Island, this film was the first of five made by Curtis Levy for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (now AIATSIS).'

'“Lurugu” is the name of an initiation ceremony that had almost died out on Mornington Island (in the Gulf of Carpentaria in north Queensland) after mission contact during World War One. This film records the community’s efforts to revive the ceremony after a lapse of 14 years.'

'Before white contact, all youths were required to undergo Lurugu, which was the first of two ceremonies for making men. In the old days the ceremony lasted months. Now, work obligations and other stresses of living in the Western world meant that the ceremony was shortened to only one week.'

'At the time of filming, about 600 people lived at the Presbyterian Mission on the island, and over half of the population belonged to the Lardil tribe. The Mission staff were invited to observe public sections of the ceremony, along with other visitors including Percy Trezise, a pilot, author and Aboriginal art expert, who had become a close friend of the community.'

'Two versions of the film were made: a longer film detailing the whole ceremony as an archival record for authorised community members, and this public version which focuses on sections of the ceremony suitable for a general audience. The film follows the preparations for the dancing, singing, feasting and body decoration that were an integral part of the ceremony.'

'Dick and Lindsay Roughsey (both of the Lardil tribe) were among those responsible for this attempt to revive the Lurugu ceremony, as part of a wider return to “traditionalism” in northern Australia, and the film follows their negotiations with tribal members and other groups about how the event is to be managed and performed.'

'Influenced by observational filmmakers like the Maysles brothers, Donn Pennebaker and others, Curtis Levy constructed the film without added music, and with an unstructured approach to following events unobtrusively with the camera, rather than trying to control them. The result is a lively portrait of a social experiment and the excitement that went with it.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Over 100 dancers from 8 tribal groups fly into Lockhart by light aircraft from as far afield as Groote Eylandt in north-eastern Arnhem Land, and Kowanyama, Edward River, Aurukun and Umagico in Cape York. Far away from their homelands, many of the dancers meet other tribal groups for the first time, and new relationships are forged between communities.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Because of work commitments and the influence of Christian Missions, traditional mourning ceremonies among the Tiwi people of Melville Island were becoming rare at the time of making this film (1974). The full, elaborate ceremony, called the Pukumani ceremony, lasted several days and involved large numbers of people in ritual roles. It was performed here with full awareness that this may be one of the last times such a ceremony would be staged in the traditional way.'

'The ceremony was prepared by the Mangatopi family of Snake Bay after the death of a 35-year old family member killed by his wife. The dead man’s father, Geoffrey Mangatopi, and his family requested this film to be made as a public record of a disappearing tradition. Unique to the Tiwi people of Melville and Bathurst islands, the Pukumani ceremony was not only performed to safe-guard the passage of the dead person into the spirit world, but to re-affirm kinship relationships and traditional Tiwi culture.'

'In 1974, about 1500 Tiwi people lived in European-administered communities on Melville and Bathurst islands. Being geographically isolated, the Tiwi were less subject to other Indigenous cultural influences. Although resistant to white settlement at first, they subsequently adapted to the presence of Europeans. Yet for many Tiwi, Christian funerals failed to ensure the ritual journey of the dead to the spirit world, and failed to provide the emotional release that the Pukumani ceremony offered.'

'Traditionally, women participated in all aspects of the ceremony (unlike women in many mainland tribal ceremonies). Elaborately decorated burial poles were prepared and were the focal point of the ceremony. Food taboos and other restrictions on behavior were intended to control the approach of supernatural forces. Body painting, dancing, re-enactment of past events, feasting and ritual cleansing were all essential parts of the ceremony, designed to ease the path of the spirit. Each kin group has their own dance, rehearsed and performed over several days, defining relationships and re-affirming them.'

'Shot in classic observational style, with great attention to detail, and often humorous, the film became widely seen in anthropology studies, and was screened publicly in many venues around the world.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Sons Of Namatjira examines the relationship between a community of Aboriginal artists and the outside world. Keith Namatjira is the son of the celebrated artist Albert Namatjira, and emulates his father’s distinctive style. He lives with his family in the same camp that his father had established on the outskirts of Alice Springs in Central Australia.'

This film 'follows Keith and his wife, Isabel, and other relatives, in their interactions with the wider world including art galleries in town and bus-loads of middle-aged tourists from the big cities. The film highlights communication difficulties between black and white, and in Levy’s terms, becomes “a parable of black-white relations in Australia”.'

'Tourists and dealers drive out to the artists’ camp to bargain with the artists in person. Keith feels pressured to accept their offers but dreams that one day he will own his own gallery, so that his family can make a decent living from their work. In addition, Keith has other pressures: he has to go to court on a charge of drink-driving, whilst at the same time working with a legal-aid officer on a claim for the land they are living on. He and his family are worried that their land will be swamped by the urban development they can see closing in around them.'

'This sympathetic portrait of a tiny community of Aboriginal artists is rich in Levy’s characteristic humour and sense of irony. It was the last of Levy’s films for AIAS before he returned to independent production, and remains one of the Film Unit’s most widely seen works.' (Source: Ronin Films)

'Gustav Malbangka and his family lived at Hermansburg Mission in central Australia. Like many other people, they wish to leave the social problems of the congested settlement behind them and return to their traditional land at Gilbert Springs. The film depicts their attempt to carve out a more satisfactory life for themselves, drawing strength from being in the homeland again.'

'Gustav reflects on his early life, raised on the Lutheran Mission at Hermannsburg and schooled there. As Hermannsburg grew in size, it attracted people from a diversity of tribal groups, and social problems developed. Encouraged by the “out-station movement”, many people like Gustav left the Mission to return to their traditional country, leaving Hermannsburg looking “like a ghost town”.'

'Life at Gilbert Springs is not easy: until bore water is provided, everyone has to live close to the Springs in bush shelters. Gustav, however, has plans to build houses with running water, and to establish a viable station with a church and a school, growing produce and raising cattle. But for the moment, they are dependent on a weekly visit from a travelling “store truck” and have their financial affairs managed by the truck’s operator, Murray Pearce.'

'Although a challenging film to make, with little overt action, it is a poignant portrait of a small group of people trying to create a new life for themselves by returning to traditional ways, and trying to maintain their vision for the future despite dependence on outside services and government grants. As a small case study of the challenges faced by communities in the out-station movement, the film is also a valuable historical record.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'At the request of a dying Tiwi man and his family on Melville Island, this film was made of the pukumani (bereavement) ceremony to follow his death.'

'The film observes the family through the long period of preparation for the ceremony, following age-old traditions. Dancing and face-painting are rehearsed, to the family’s satisfaction, and because “things should be right for this film”.'

'For the two days of ceremony, the community moves to Carslake Beach where a smoking ritual is held to protect the participants from spirits. The cemetery poles are erected, traditional dances are performed along with personal dances by family members. Facial and body decoration is elaborate and spectacular.'

'After saying a final farewell to the old man, the community and the family leave the Beach and return to the village where routine life resumes.'

'The film is narrated by one of the participants in the ceremony, Thomas Woody Minipini, not using a prepared script, but with his observations recorded as he watched the edited film.'

'Without narration, and without identification of individual speakers, the film provides an invaluable record of two events which occurred in the final week of January 1977, and which marked “a turning point in legal recognition of Aboriginal rights to land”.'

'The film documents discussions among traditional owners and white officials and legal advisors, at a large gathering at Batchelor, 100km south of Darwin.'

'The first event was the meeting of traditional owners of the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory to finalise their land claim for presentation to the inquiry into the Ranger Uranium Mine. Three items were needed to present to the court to complete the case for returning ownership of the land to the traditional owners: agreement on the area of the land involved; agreement on who were the traditional owners; and agreement on how the owners will manage the land once they regain ownership.'

'This meeting then flowed into the second major event: the inaugural meeting of the Northern Land Council, a body constituted to represent traditional owners. The Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ian Viner, addresses the meeting and underlines the importance of the day – as the first time that traditional Aboriginal law is recognized by the Federal Government’s legal system.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Originally filmed as an archival record of a Warlpiri (Walbiri) ceremony in 1967 by Roger Sandall, the film footage was re-worked 10 years later by anthropologist Nicolas Peterson and filmmaker, Kim McKenzie, to make this short version for public viewing.'

'Involving large numbers of both men and women, Ngatjakula is one of the most spectacular ceremonies of central Australia, employing fire, and several days of singing and dance, to resolve conflicts and re-affirm social order among the Warlpiri (Walbiri) people.'

'One of Sandall’s many films about ceremonial life, including several of Warlpiri rituals, the film was part of the program of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies to record traditional aspects of Aboriginal life and culture. McKenzie’s collaboration with Peterson (who had been present at the time of the original filming) to edit this public version, is a meticulous representation of the fire ceremony, much of which took place at night.' (Source: Ronin Films 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.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Narrated by the linguist and anthropologist Peter Sutton, this documentary observes his work with a family in far north Queensland, outside Aurukun, to map their hereditary “clan country”. The aim of the older members of the family is partly to protect their land and prove their attachment to it, for purposes of dealing with the government and industry, and also to demarcate the country from claims by other Aboriginal groups.'

'Angus Namponen, with his elderly uncle, Jack Spear, and their extended family, take Sutton and the filmmakers into the bush around a large salt-water inlet, to show them places that they know and remember from their youth. The location of the sites is then recorded by Sutton and on film as a form of “permanent registration” of the places and their significance. Whether these are sacred or secular sites, they are all part of the “closely-knit fabric” of elements in the landscape and the history of the family’s relationship to them.'

'Angus’s dilemma is that he would prefer to bring his family to live in this, their own country, but has to balance that wish with his recognition that the children need to go to school in town. The process of mapping with Peter Sutton has significance in introducing Angus’s children to the country and to the family’s own history – both a process of recording memories and transmitting knowledge.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'When Geraldine Kawanka’s husband died, she and her children moved out of their house. In earlier times, their bark house would have been burnt, but today a “house-opening” ceremony has evolved, creatively mingling Aboriginal, Torres Strait, and European traditions in order to deal with death in the context of new living patterns in the Aboriginal community of Aurukun, on the Cape York Peninsula, north Queensland.'

'This beautifully observed documentary shows both the preparations for the ceremony and then the elaborate event itself, involving ritual, dancing, music, and a big feast that not even a sudden drenching tropical storm can disrupt.'

'Narrating the film herself, Geraldine Kawangka expresses her feelings about the gathering of family members, explains the relationships between old and new traditions, and finally examines her feelings about returning to her house after the ceremony is over. She talks about how the ceremony is essential as a way to teach young people about traditional values and customs, and to give them a sense of belonging to a huge extended family: “if our children lost these ceremonies, children wouldn’t know who they are or where they come in”.'

'Djunawunya, Arnhem Land, east of the town of Maningrida, July 1978. Frank Gurrmanamana is responsible for preparing the final mortuary ceremonies for his brother who had died six years before. The brother had been buried in Maningrida, but now his remains are being brought back to his home country.'

'Central to the ceremonies is Harry Diama, the senior blood-relative of the deceased man, but Harry lives in Maningrida and is pre-occupied with a pending court-case there involving his son. He is needed to approve each step of the preparations, and is also pivotal in bringing other people to the event, including “men of importance” for the dancing.'

'Harry’s continuing absence puts huge pressure on Frank and upon all of the others who must wait at the ceremonial site, including Les Hiatt, Franks’ old anthropologist friend. Harry is also aware that the film crew is waiting to record the event: “These filmmakers work for us. We’ll see it here … our own film. We’ll all be in it.”'

'Painting of emblems on the hollow-log coffin proceeds, sand sculptures are made, with Frank expressing his constant concern that it all “looks good for the film”.'

'Men from Cape Stewart, an area with cultural and traditional trade links to the dead man’s clan, are also needed to make the ceremony work, and further tension surrounds their response to the painting of the coffin.'

'As the day for the ceremony’s climax draws near, Frank grows ever more anxious about the non-arrival of Harry and the people he is supposed to bring.'

'When Harry finally arrives, the final stage of the ceremony is permitted to begin and, though normally performed at night, it is successfully performed in daylight for the benefit of the camera. In the end, Frank’s responsibilities are fulfilled and he speaks with great satisfaction about the film: “This film is mine. Now men everywhere will see my sacred emblems … These emblems I hold so dear are now on a film, so the film is also dear to me. It was my idea to bring these film makers. All is now finished … and I am filled with pride.”' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'At Ngurgdu (Spring Peak) in the Northern Territory, an area soon to be irrevocably disturbed by uranium mining, 80-year-old William Alderson (known as “Yorky Billy”) reflects on his life in the outback.'

'His father was an Englishman from Yorkshire (hence Yorky’s nickname) who spent 45 years in Australia and “tried everything” – working as a prospector, a railway worker, drover and buffalo hunter. After only 3 years of school, his only son, Yorky, worked with him - dingo scalping and hunting buffalo on horseback or on foot, until he joined the army. Yorky’s mother was an Aboriginal woman who died when he was only 3 years old.'

'After the war, Yorky married an Aboriginal woman and worked in various jobs – gold prospecting, and at a sawmill before settling at Ngurgdu. He and his wife had a large family and she is still with him at Ngurgdu, helping him to look after the property. His father, who died in 1948, is buried there.'

'Yorky Billy recorded his story in November 1977, and died soon thereafter, in February 1979, and was buried near his father at Ngurgdu.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Gordon Smith, head of the Collum Collum Aboriginal Co-operative which operates a cattle station in northern New South Wales, and Sunny Bancroft, the station manager, are negotiating with the Aboriginal Development Corporation in Canberra for a loan. Finance is needed to stock the property with breeding cattle so that the station can become financially independent.'

'The film details the frustrations of negotiating with a distant bureaucracy while, at the same time, trying to manage the property and make it a viable business.'

'The negotiations take place mainly by telephone with occasional visits from ADC representatives. Sunny’s wife, Liz, is in charge of the homestead and hospitality whenever a visitor calls. Sunny meanwhile has to deal with training the station hands, maintaining fences, and managing the cattle that are currently held.'

'After much stone-walling by the ADC, frustrations and paper-shuffling, approval for the finance is given but then it takes even more time for the money to flow.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'This powerful documentary was made by Oomera (Coral) Edwards on Super 8mm film as a training exercise at the (then) Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra.'

'The film surveys the New South Wales policy of taking Aboriginal children from their families and putting them in institutions run by the Aborigines Welfare Board. From 1883 to 1969, this policy deprived generations of children of their Aboriginal identity. Oomera was one of these children, and she discusses her own struggle to regain her Aboriginality.'

'The film also includes a moving interview with a former matron at an Aboriginal Welfare Home in Cootamundra, expressing her on-going concern that Aboriginal children were removed from their parents without any consultation or parental permission.'

'Oomera’s personal journey and her work in helping other families to re-unite is a central part of a longer documentary, Link-Up Dairy (1987), directed by David MacDougall, also in the AIATSIS collection.'

'This remarkable film documents the making of a spear-thrower or woomera by two Pintupi men from the Western Desert cultural group who live in the Lake McDonald area in the central west of the Northern Territory.'

'The two men use stone tools, demonstrating techniques which are becoming rare in this modern day. Once a suitable mulga tree has been selected, sharp stones are used to cut an appropriate long sliver from a trunk and to shape it. An adze for further shaping is made with resin from spinifex grass to fasten a sharp stone to a wooden handle. Oil or grease is used to preserve the wood and to prevent splitting. The whole process of making the woomera takes around 12 hours.'

'The film also underlines the importance to the Puntupi of the spear-thrower and its many uses, including its practical value in hunting fast-moving game.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Examines the expectations and the life of Aboriginal stockman Bob Massey Pootchemunka, whose ambition is to see an all-Aboriginal cattle station operating at his home, Ti-Tree. Also presents Bob's nephew Eric Pootchemunka, an experienced stockman who would be station manager, and Eric's son Ian who would find on the station the challenges and companionship of a stockman's life.' (Source: TROVE)

'Broome, Western Australia, 1982: Cass recalls the old days of the pearling industry when there would be 40 or more boats operating from Broome. Now there are only five or six...

'Today, many tourists come to Broome but “are not told the truth.” People like Cass were told by white people not to say bad things about the town.

'Cass visits the local cemetery and sees the stones marking the graves of a lot of his old friends. Only a few old-timers remain. They all worked in the pearling industry despite the hard conditions and the dangers of the ‘bends”, and problems with whales and other dangerous fish.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Archaeologist Rhys Jones investigates unusual stone spear-points found in ancient sites in the Kakadu National Park, and which seem to have been traded south from Arnhem Land. Jones hears of two Elders in eastern Arnhem Land who remember how to make such spear-points and where to find the special stone in the bush.'

'With a geneticist, Neville White, who had been working at Donydji for 10 years, Jones is taken by the two old men and three younger men whom they wish to teach, on a trip into the bush to try to find the quarry site that used to be the source of the stone for these spear-heads. It is a long and difficult trek, albeit with a lot of hilarity along the way, and with concerns about the dangers of wild buffalo, and the risk of getting too close to sacred and secret places. Rules are set by the Elders about what can be filmed: as one observer noted, the Aboriginal people in this film are far from being passive subjects of a film, but recognise “that filmmakers had to be controlled and, more importantly, that they could be controlled”.'

'When an outcrop of the special rock is found, at a place called Ngilibitji near the head of the Walker River, work begins to find suitable stones and to make sharp-edged chips from them for spear-points and knife blades. One Elder remembers stories about the power of the spear-stone: “My spirit is one with that of the stone”.'

'As a result of the trip recorded in the film, one of the Elders, Diltjima, decided to move permanently back to Ngilibitji with his family, to protect the area from incursion by mining companies and others.' (Source: Publisher's website)

'Constructed as a series of vignettes of station life, the film focuses particularly on the relationship between Sunny Bancroft, the station manager, and a 16-year-old trainee, Shane Gordon. The episodes are linked by Sunny’s reflections on learning the hard way from experience, and from the lessons taught him by his father.'

'With intertitles to introduce each episode, the film is eloquent in its depiction of Sunny’s patient approach to managing his horses and training young Shane: “I believe in kindness to everything and everyone. If you be kind to something it’ll be kind back”.'

'Some vignettes have a Tati-like simplicity of observation, for example when young Shane tries to untangle a bridle with one hand while holding a frisky horse with the other, or when Sunny patiently attempts to get a recalcitrant paint-spraying machine to work.'

'The film is, above all, an invaluable observation of the personal dynamics within a working cattle station, and within the Aboriginal community that operates the station.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'Using a wealth of archival photographs, this documentary reconstructs the life of buffalo hunters in the remote wetlands of the Northern Territory in the 1930s – both the white hunters and the Aboriginal labour that supported their operations.'

'Tom Cole was one of the hunters, now retired in Sydney. With the filmmakers, he visits the sites of hunting camps that he had built before the war in what is now Kakadu National Park. He reminisces on the old buffalo trade and meets some of the Aboriginal men and women who still live in the area who worked for him and on whom he was dependent.'

'He also visits Victoria Settlement (Port Essington): one of “the most heroic and hopeless” ventures in the history of the British Empire, established in the 1830s, now in ruins, where buffalo were first introduced.'

'For the film, Tom and his former Aboriginal team build a new camp in the way they did in the 1930s, and demonstrate the skinning of buffalos, the washing of the hides, and salting and drying.'

'Hunting was on horse-back in those days, unlike the present-day hunting by helicopter, and “Yellow Charlie” Whittaker was one of the great horse-back hunters. With other veterans, he comments on the tough life of the camps, when conditions were extremely rough and when they were often paid with food, tobacco and other commodities.'

'The hunters remember the wartime bombing of Darwin and the explosion in buffalo numbers when hunting was abandoned during the war. Nowadays, the buffalo is being eradicated from Kakadu, and rangers such as Dave Lindner, Environmental Manager for the Gagudju Association of traditional owners, explain the modern methods of control.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'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, it’s 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. It’s a familiar rural task where the expectation is to keep motors running, but for these Aboriginal men, it’s also an occasion to affirm continuing community relationships.'

'Sunny regards himself as something of a “bush mechanic”. Replacing the engine calls for a gathering of men and children “to see what happens”. It’s a time for “common sense” but also communal effort, and the calling in of local experts when needed.' (Source: Ronin Films website)

'This beautifully photographed portrait of the life of Aboriginal cattle men in the Northern Territory was filmed at Robinson River Station in 1986.'

'The station today is owned by the Aboriginal community, providing a base for the community’s future. Elder stockmen at the station such as “Ten Dollar” Don Rory and Johnson Charlie talk about their past experiences with white settlers and the community memory of Aboriginal people being shot by white men. From this violent beginning, the Aboriginal men came to work for the white station owners – sometimes trading labour for food. As one says, it was “just like slaving, working for bread and beef”.'

'The station is on Garawa land and today the Garawa men have a strong identity as “number one” cattle men. Against the background of the annual muster, their stories are woven together to give a rich portrait of their way of life, their pride in their work and their close connection to Garawa country and Garawa culture.'

'The annual Borroloola rodeo is another place for their skills with horses and cattle to be displayed. The excitement of the rodeo and the rough riding contests is strikingly captured by the filmmakers.'

'Link-Up Diary explores the consequences of the New South Wales government’s long-term practice of taking Aboriginal children away from their parents and raising them in “white” environments. The film takes the form of a personal journey by the filmmaker, David MacDougall, as he spends a week on the road with three workers from Link-Up.'

'Link-Up is an Aboriginal organisation founded in 1980 by Oomera (Coral) Edwards, herself taken away from her family, to help Aboriginal people find their lost parents and other relatives. As the film shows, being reunited with one’s family is only the first step in the process. Then begins the long and often difficult stage of learning to accept both the new family members and one’s new identity.'

'The film follows Oomera and two of her colleagues (historian Peter Read, and Link-Up trainee Robyne Vincent) as they follow up several of their cases in and around Sydney. In the process, they reunite a young woman with her father. Through these visits, we learn how children were taken and placed in institutions or put out for fostering or adoption by white families and the impact this separation had on the children themselves and their families...'

'The story of an Aboriginal stockman and his family and their growing passion for “picnic racing” on bush tracks in New South Wales.'

'Sunny and The Dark Horse was filmed at Collum Collum, an Aboriginal-operated cattle station in north-eastern New South Wales. The film follows the Aboriginal manager of the station, Sunny Bancroft, and his non-Aboriginal wife, Liz, in their search for a winning horse to triumph on the local picnic racing circuit – but things don’t always go their way.'

'The story begins when Sunny buys a horse for his daughter to ride and races it at the Glenreagh Gallop. He then attempts to find a suitable stockhorse on the station to race at the local Baryulgil picnic races. But while training one of these he hears that a friend has a racehorse for sale and buys it to race at Baryulgil. The horse, King, wins at Baryulgil but loses at subsequent race meetings. Sunny determines to find another winner and buys a black horse, naming it Sambo.'

'With the end of the season, Sunny is persuaded by his family not to buy any more horses, but then he hears that a friend has another racehorse for sale ...'(Ronin Films website)

'Barunga, in the Northern Territory, hosts an annual festival of Aboriginal sport and culture. In 1988, 200 years after the British flag was raised in Sydney, the Festival took on a special meaning. Prime Minister Bob Hawke was invited to attend and the Festival organisers had high expectations of a political outcome.'

'Wenten Rubuntja, Chairman of the Central Land Council, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Chairman of the Northern Land Council, John Ah Kit, Director, of the Northern Land Council and Pat Dodson, Director of the Central Land Council, worked together to prepare a major petition representing many clans from the Northern Territory. In the form of a large collaborative painting in which clans expressed their “story for Country”, and a written document, the petition asked the Prime Minister to recognise the government’s obligations to Aboriginal people and for agreement to commence negotiations for an Aboriginal Treaty.'

'Presenting the painting and statement to the Prime Minister, Galarrwuy Yunupingu’s speech expressed the need to change the relations between white and Aboriginal Australia, to “make it right!”. Bob Hawke’s speech in reply made a clear commitment to commence Treaty negotiations in the life of the present Parliament, but this was not to happen.'

'Kim McKenzie’s beautifully filmed portrait of the festival – the preparations, the sport activities, the singing and dancing, the tensions prior to Hawke’s arrival – eloquently captures the cultural and political importance attached to the Festival by the participants and by the thousands of spectators.' (Source: Ronin Films website)