KULKA: The Life and Times of Gordon Briscoe

The inspirational story of Dr. Gordon Briscoe's life - from his work with legendary eye doctor Fred Hollows, to his days as an activist travelling Australia and telling traditional land owners about their land rights, and everything in between.

KULKA celebrates the life and times of Dr Gordon Briscoe, AO
- a campaigner for basic human rights for Indigenous Australians, an activist, motivator, thinker, researcher, author, teacher and mentor. It is the inspirational story of an institutionalised Aboriginal person, interned in an 'alien' camp during the second World War with very little education, who struggled against the odds to achieve dignity and respect for himself and his people.

His work as co-founder of the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern in the 1970s led him to initiate the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program conducted by the late Professor Fred Hollows. This program opened the eyes of the world to the poverty and disease underlying the social problems of Indigenous Australians. As a Land Rights activist and the first Indigenous Australian to stand for federal parliament, Gordon travelled throughout the Northern Territory talking to communities about their rights as traditional owners.

This story of Gordon Briscoe's journey as a boy once labeled a 'ward of the state' to a man who reclaimed his traditional family and sense of cultural identity, is intensely personal and powerful, and resonates with the ongoing struggle for self-determination facing Indigenous Australians today.

Narrated by Aaron Briscoe

Directed and written by Claire Haywood
Produced by Kingston Anderson, Claire Haywood
Associate producer – Gordon Briscoe
Camera operators – Kingston Anderson, Chris Herd
Editors – Claire Haywood, Kelli Drinkwater
Music composed by Peter Kaldor

Produced in association with National Indigenous Television, Shark Island Foundation, Rio Tinto Aboriginal Fund and Screen Australia

© 2010 Wonderland Productions

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• preview Click here to download KULKA study guide (PDF 4.3 Mb)

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