Des Kootji Raymond

A strong supporter and member of FTI for the past ten years, Kootji has worked with filmmaker Paul Roberts to make a number highly awarded films including ARTISTS UP FRONT, BUFFALO LEGENDS and LAND OF THE LITTLE KINGS.

"Kootji's a great supporter and mentor at FTI" said FTI CEO Graeme Sward, "He is a charismatic man and a leader, both as a film maker and a human being. On location, Kootji is absolute gold and his very presence lifts the spirits of cast and crew."

A Larrakia man and traditional owner of the Darwin region in the Northern Territory, Kootji initially traveled to Perth in the late 1970s to play football for West Perth while studying art at Claremont College.

After knee injuries curtailed his football career, Kootji taught art and football at Clontarf Aboriginal College later enrolling in a fine arts degree course at Curtin.
It was there that he met filmmaker Paul Roberts in 1993 and began a collaboration that continues to the present day.

In 2000 Kootji and Paul completed LAND OF THE LITTLE KINGS, which won the 2000 Human Rights Award for television that year and is generally regarded as the seminal documentary work on the issue of the stolen generation.

Kootji has gained numerous production credits including Assistant Director on The Mary G Show and directed Cooking Capers for ABC Television's Message Stick among others.

He continues to paint and his art works have appeared in over a dozen exhibitions nationally and in 2003 he was awarded a Masters Degree in Fine Arts.

Filmography

	WRAP ME UP IN PAPERBARK » Speedy and Kathy's mother, Kingarli, was one of the ‘Stolen Generations’, taken away from her family and traditional country at a young age and forced into domestic service in Darwin during the early 1930s...
	LAND OF THE LITTLE KINGS » LAND OF THE LITTLE KINGS is a feature-length documentary which provides personal accounts of the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families...
	BUFFALO LEGENDS » Bill Dempsey MBE, himself a football legend, narrates this story of a group of men who knocked down the barriers of racism on the sporting field...