MAKE IT RIGHT! - new upgraded file of unique historical film
14 December 2023
NOW AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING AND SCREENINGS IN A SUPERB 1080p HIGH RES FILE!
MAKE IT RIGHT! (1988, 21 mins) is a unique record of the landmark 1988 Barunga Festival of Aboriginal Sport and Culture at which Prime Minister Bob Hawke made commitments (unfulfilled) to negotiate a treaty with Aboriginal people.
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.
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.
Produced, directed, photographed
and edited by Kim McKenzie
Sound recording Wayne Barker
Sound mixing Chris Schweers
Produced by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, the Northern Land Council, and the Central Land Council