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First Nations (4/14)
Films about the First Nations peoples of Australia and the Torres Strait Islands, including many films by First Nations filmmakers. Stories range across issues relating to identity and the diversity of histories and cultures both before and after the arrival of Captain Cook, including the "Stolen Generations," art, anthropology, archaeology and politics,
![DESTINY IN ALICE [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/3325.jpg)
DESTINY IN ALICE [from the CAAMA Collection]
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 27 min
A light-hearted look at the Lesbian community of Alice Springs in central Australia. more
DREAM OF LOVE, THE
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 26 min
An intensely personal story by filmmaker Lawrence Johnston about his parents' troubled 59-year mixed-race marriage and the effect of the relationship and domestic violence on the sons and daughters of the family. more
DROVER'S BOY, THE
2015 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 11 min
This 'hybrid' blend of music, documentary and drama is set in the 1920s in outback Australia, and evokes a time when it was illegal for white Australians and Aboriginal people to marry. Based on a ballad by Ted Egan, the film pays tribute to the role of Aboriginal women in the pastoral history of frontier Australia. more
DYING SHAME, A
1997 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 53 min
A Dying Shame tells personal stories of families and individuals within the remote Aboriginal community in Borroloola and the struggles of these people and their families who have to cope with poor health and an ineffectual health system. more
![EIGHT LADIES [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4581.jpg)
EIGHT LADIES [from the CAAMA Collection]
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
A journey through Alyawarr Country with eight ladies as they hunt echidna and gather bush tucker. more
EMILY IN JAPAN - The Making of An Exhibition
2009 (PG) 82 min
Behind the scenes of the blockbuster exhibition of paintings by the Indigenous artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye which toured Japan attracting record crowds. more
ETCHED IN BONE
2018 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 73 min
When the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC agrees to repatriate stolen human bones from northern Australia, an Aboriginal elder creates a ceremony that restores his ancestors' spirits to their homeland. more
EXILE AND THE KINGDOM
1993 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 110 min
The experiences of a community of Aboriginal people from pre-colonial times to the 1990s. The re-release of the award-winning feature documentary from 1993, made with the YINDJIBARNDI, NGARLUMA, BANYJIMA and GURRAMA people of Roebourne, Western Australia. more
![FAMILIAR PLACES [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/7347.jpg)
FAMILIAR PLACES [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1980 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 50 min
Mapping traditional clan country in north Queensland. more
FANTOME ISLAND
2011 (PG) 82 min
The fascinating and moving tale of Joe Eggmolesse, who in 1945 was removed from his family and confined to an Indigenous leper colony on an island off the North Queensland coast. He was seven years old. more
![FINDING PLACE [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/2886.jpg)
FINDING PLACE [from the CAAMA Collection]
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
A film about manhood and the problems of living in two cultures. more
FIRST CITIZEN: ALBERT NAMATJIRA
1989 (G) 54 min
Albert Namatjira was the first Aboriginal artist to be recognised by white Australians. He was torn between two worlds simply because he had the wisdom to recognise both. Two cultures, two laws. The feting and fawning of the city glitterati, ultimately led to his tragic decline and death. more
![FIVE SEASONS [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/742.jpg)
FIVE SEASONS [from the CAAMA Collection]
2004 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
In these fast and modern times, the Numurindi people are still guided by the seasons and stories of the Dreamtime. This observational documentary focuses on Moses Numamurdirdi and his families fight to hold onto their culture and ways in an ever-changing world. more
FLOATING ... LIKE WIND BLOW 'EM ABOUT
1975 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 58 min
A film by Michael Edols. Available on DVD and Vimeo-on-Demand as part of the ASPECTS OF A LIFE collection. more
FLYING BOOMERANGS, THE
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
24 Indigenous teenagers embark on the first Aussie Rules tour of South Africa. more
FOUNDATION, The (NIDF series 5)
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 26 min
A documentary that intercuts interviews with historical footage to tell the history of The Foundation of Aboriginal Affairs, an organisation significant in the push for the 1967 referendum in which Aboriginal peoples were given the vote. more
FRONTIER CONVERSATION, A
2006 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 54 min
A fascinating journey through the Top End of Australia to explore what history means to the traditional landowners. more
![FULL CIRCLE [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/8893.jpg)
FULL CIRCLE [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1987 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 20 min
A story of Aboriginal stockmen at Robinson River Station on traditional Garawa land, in the Northern Territory. more
GENOCIDE IN THE WILDFLOWER STATE
2024 (M) 58 min
An intensively researched documentary which describes a violent, state-run system of eugenics, racial absorption, and social assimilation in 20th century Western Australia. more
GEOFF DIXON - PORTRAITS OF US
2022 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 82 min
An intimate portrait of the life and work of iconoclastic New Zealand artist Geoff Dixon. more
GOLDEN CORD, THE
1996 (G) 55 min
THE GOLDEN CORD looks beyond the fascinating detail of the refined technical skills required by the art of batik, to aspects of the vivid spiritual and social traditions of Java and Aboriginal Australia: two distinct but strangely parallel contemporary cultures resting on timeless foundations. more
![GOOD-BYE OLD MAN [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/7348.jpg)
GOOD-BYE OLD MAN [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1977 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 66 min
A Tiwi Island Bereavement Ceremony. more
![GREEN BUSH [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4482.jpg)
GREEN BUSH [from the CAAMA Collection]
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: MA) 26 min
NOW DIGITALLY RE-MASTERED FROM ORIGINAL FILM NEGATIVES! An Indigenous radio DJ does the nightshift at a remote community radio station, and must negotiate nightly dramas while still spinning the music. A film by Warwick Thornton. more
GURINDJI JOURNEY (book)
(G)
This compelling book by the young Japanese historian, Dr Minory Hokari, published in English posthumously, is a personal, philosophical, lyrical record of his journey into Indigenous Australian culture. Part memoir, part history, part theory, the book is the story of Hokari's discovery of Gurindji modes of history and historical... more
HABITS OF NEW NORCIA, THE
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 53 min
Re-release of a remarkable documentary from 2000: the story of the Benedictine Aboriginal Mission at New Norcia, in Western Australia. Now a popular tourist destination north of Perth, the Mission holds harsh memories for the former Aboriginal "inmates" who were placed there during the 1920s through to the 1960s. more
HERE'S MY HAND: A testimony to an Aboriginal Memorial
1988 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 27 min
A film by Michael Edols. Available on DVD and Vimeo-on-Demand as part of the ASPECTS OF A LIFE collection. more
HERITAGE FIGHT
2013 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 104 min
Broome is a town in the Kimberley region, one of Australia's great wilderness areas. This is where the head of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, and Woodside, a multi billion-dollar company and Australia's largest liquid natural gas producers, decided to install the second largest liquified natural gas plant in the... more
HISTORY BITES BACK
2021 (MA) 55 min
After the bold and brilliant Occupation: Native, Aboriginal filmmaker Trisha Morton-Thomas teams up again with Comedy Director-Writer, Craig Anderson to launch a rocket into 250 years of taboos, prejudice and ignorance. History Bites Back uses devastating satire to unpack the negative social bias of the history shared... more
HOMELAND STORY
2019 (M) 84 min
An intimate portrait of Donydji, an Indigenous Homeland community in north-east Arnhem Land. The film charts their struggle from the 1960s to the present day to overcome the corrosive effects of government policy and pressure from mining interests, and to remain on their land. more
![HOUSE-OPENING, THE [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/7835.jpg)
HOUSE-OPENING, THE [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1980 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 42 min
"House-opening" ceremonies in a contemporary Aboriginal community combine elements of Aboriginal, Torres Strait and European cultures in dealing with death. A film by Judith MacDougall. more
HOW THE WEST WAS LOST
1987 (G) 72 min
NOW RESTORED FROM ORIGINAL FILM NEGATIVES! The story of the 1946 Aboriginal Pastoral Workers' Strike that has never officially ended. An event more important than the Eureka Stockade but never recorded in written histories - the passive resistance by 800 Aboriginal station workers against the appalling living and working... more
IMAGINARY BORDER
2017 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 105 min
A challenging and compassionate reflection on race relations in Australia and the Torres Strait Islands. A film by Iranian-born Austrian filmmaker, Alireza Ghanie. more
IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 78 min
Follow the Tiwi Bombers football team through their first season in the Northern Territory's big league as they strive to fulfill the dreams of their grandfathers. more
INNOCENCE BETRAYED
2014 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 52 min
In 1990 and 1991, three Aboriginal children were murdered in the rural town of Bowraville NSW - Colleen Craig, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton Speedy-Duroux. Despite two trials and a coroner's inquest, no-one was ever convicted of the murders. more
![INTERVENTION 2 years on [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4894.jpg)
INTERVENTION 2 years on [from the CAAMA Collection]
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
An Aboriginal perspective on the effect of the Australian Government's Intervention in Aboriginal lives in the Northern Territory. more
INTERVENTION, Katherine, N.T.
2008 (PG) 52 min
Intervention, Katherine, N.T. is a one-year record of the impact of The Emergency Intervention by the Federal Government in the Northern Territory region of Katherine and the surrounding communities of Beswick, Barunga, Eva Valley and Binjari. more
INTERVENTION: Stories from the Inside
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 46 min
An incisive inside look at the historic Intervention by the Federal Government in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, made with the participation of Alice Springs town-campers. more
ISLAND OF LIES
1991 (G) 56 min
When Eliza Fraser was shipwrecked on Fraser Island in 1836, there were up to 3000 Aboriginal people living there — by 1905, there were perhaps a dozen left. Filmmaker Gillian Coote follows the route of early settlers north out of Sydney to Fraser Island to uncover the lies and secrets of Australia's settlement. more
![IT'S A LONG ROAD BACK [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/7693.jpg)
IT'S A LONG ROAD BACK [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1981 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 13 min
The story of one woman's struggle to regain her Aboriginality. more
![JABIRU 0886: TRESPASS [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/6588.jpg)
JABIRU 0886: TRESPASS [from the CAAMA Collection]
2002 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 26 min
The story of Yvonne Margarula and the resistance of the Mirarr people to the loss of their land and their heritage because of mining operations in the Kakadu area. more
JAPARTA - a Journey to the Gurindji Way
2025 (G) 99 min
The story of a Japanese scholar, Minoru Hokari, who, before his death in 2004 at the age of 32, achieved work which today commands an ever-widening audience. It is a story of cross-cultural understanding, how Gurindji Elders in the Northern Territory tasked Minoru to relay stories from their culture to a wider world. A... more
![JARLMADANGAH: Our Dream Our Reality [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4485.jpg)
JARLMADANGAH: Our Dream Our Reality [from the CAAMA Collection]
2007 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 25 min
Welcome to Jarlmadangah – where we go well off the beaten track! Situated in the West Kimberleys, Jarlmadangah is a remote community often hailed as 'a model' for its many social and cultural achievements. more
JOURNEY WEST (BUWARRALA ARYAH)
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
In the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia, Aboriginal Elders lead their community on a traditional walk across Country to re-connect children and youth to their culture. more
JUPURRURLA - MAN OF MEDIA (from the CAAMA Collection)
2019 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 28 min
A portrait of Warlpiri Elder and Lawman, Francis Jupurrurla Kelly – a pioneer of Indigenous filmmaking in central Australia. more
KABBARLI
2003 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 50 min
KABBARLI explores the extraordinary life of Daisy Bates and her passionate involvement with Australian Aborigines. The film interweaves fiction and biography, history and memory to explore Daisy Bates' life - a dramatic map of the colonial imagination, and a portrait of a remarkable and wily old woman. more
![KARLU KARLU: Devil's Marbles [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4895.jpg)
KARLU KARLU: Devil's Marbles [from the CAAMA Collection]
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 21 min
Stories of Karlu Karlu and its handback by the government to the traditional owners. more
![KEEPERS OF THE STORY - Jandamarra [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4590.jpg)
KEEPERS OF THE STORY - Jandamarra [from the CAAMA Collection]
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 24 min
The story of the Bunuba people's efforts to keep alive the story of Jandamarra and his war against white settlers in the 1880s in the Kimberleys, as a source of inspiration for Aboriginal people and all Australians. more
KIMBERLEY MOB, THE
1991 (PG) 54 min
Three Aboriginal brothers run a cattle station in the Kimberley. They face drought, divided tribal loyalties, government bureaucracy, diamond-mining companies and fundamentalist Christianity while trying to keep traditional Aboriginal beliefs and customs alive for their children and future generations. more
KINGS OF BAXTER
2017 (M) 66 min
A rare insight into life behind bars for juvenile inmates in one of the country's largest juvenile justice centres: two actors from the Bell Shakespeare company engage with young offenders in an attempt to stage a performance of Shakespeare's Macbeth for their families and fellow inmates. more
KULKA: The Life and Times of Gordon Briscoe
2010 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
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. more
LAKE OF SCARS, THE
2022 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 95 min
A documentary exploring the beautiful, mysterious scarred trees, middens and stone scatters at Lake Boort and surrounds in Victoria, and the story of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, who are working against the clock to preserve and promote what they can. A film presented by the late, great Uncle Jack Charles, more
LALAI DREAMTIME
1972 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 60 min
LALAI DREAMTIME takes the viewer into pre-colonial Australia to tell a story depicting the spiritual tradition of the people. A film by Michael Edols, from the story told by Sam Woolagoodja. more
LAND BILONG ISLANDERS
1990 (G) 52 min
LAND BILONG ISLANDERS tells the story of what has become known as the 'Mabo Case'. It contains rare interviews with the late Eddie Mabo, James Rice, Father Dave Passi and others involved in this historic legal drama. Together they challenged the idea that prior to European settlement, Australia was a land belonging to no-one,... more
LAND OF THE LITTLE KINGS
2000 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 78 min
LAND OF THE LITTLE KINGS is a feature-length documentary which provides personal accounts of the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families. Through these stories of survivors of the stolen generations, musician and performer Archie Roach reconstructs his own story. more
LANGUAGE OF LIGHT, THE
2023 (M) 171 min
Intimate portraits of seven ground-breaking Australian photographers, each with a significant body of work and each with a different photographic style. more
LAST OF THE NOMADS, THE
1997 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 52 min
THE LAST OF THE NOMADS tells the moving story of Warri and Yatungka, the last of the Mandildjara people to be living a traditional nomadic lifestyle in the remote Gibson Desert of central Australia. more
LAST TASMANIAN, THE
1978 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 105 min
The controversial 1978 documentary by Tom Haydon and archaeologist Rhys Jones. The story of the swiftest and most destructive genocide on record. more
LIFE OF THE TOWN
2009 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 390 min
13 half hour episodes detailing the happy, sad, funny and dramatic endeavours of a community of battlers united through footy. Narrated by Dale Kickett, LIFE OF THE TOWN is a homage to grass roots football and is a window into the lives of the men, women and children who are passionate about their community. more
LIGHT FROM THE SHADOWS
2012 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 29 min
The remarkable life and work of Aboriginal artist Danny Eastwood and his contribution to the well-being of his community in western Sydney, and to Reconciliation and Australian culture at large. more
![LINK-UP DIARY [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/7692.jpg)
LINK-UP DIARY [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1987 (G) 87 min
On the road with Link-up, an organisation that re-unites Aboriginal families more
LITTLE TOWNS, BIG VOICES
2016 (M) 28 min
Taking a stand on domestic violence in regional, rural and remote communities: in this powerful short film by Fran Dobbie, this often hidden subject is brought to light by people willing to speak out about abuse to help create social change. more
![LIVING COUNTRY [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/4483.jpg)
LIVING COUNTRY [from the CAAMA Collection]
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 22 min
Traditional owners of proposed nuclear waste dump sites in central Australia show us what's at stake if the unthinkable happens. A film by David Tranter. more
![LOCKHART FESTIVAL [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/9052.jpg)
LOCKHART FESTIVAL [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1974 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 33 min
A classic documentary about an Aboriginal dance festival organised by the Lockhart River community in far north Queensland. more
![LORE OF LOVE, THE [from the CAAMA Collection]](/images/small/2300.jpg)
LORE OF LOVE, THE [from the CAAMA Collection]
2005 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 25 min
An 18 year old Aboriginal girl learns the lore of love from her outgoing and mischievous grandmothers. more
LOUSY LITTLE SIXPENCE
1983 (G) 54 min
DIGITALLY RESTORED! In NSW, in 1909, the Aborigines Protection Board planned to break up Aboriginal communities by forcibly removing their children and hiring them out as servants to white employers. The title of this powerful documentary comes from the wages that were to be paid to the children. Many never saw that lousy... more
![LURUGU [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/9117.jpg)
LURUGU [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1973 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: PG) 56 min
The revival of an initiation ceremony for young men on Mornington Island in north Queensland. more
LURUJARRI DREAMING
2013 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 28 min
An animated exploration of Goolarabooloo history and culture, focusing on a nine-day Lurujarri Heritage Trail walk led by Elders from the community, north from Broome along the Dampier Peninsula in north-western Australia. more
MACDOUGALL TAPES, THE
2017 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 261 min
Extended conversations with David and Judith MacDougall about their years with the Film Unit of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1975-1987. During this time, the MacDougalls made a series of eleven documentary films that were acknowledged world-wide as landmark achievements in ethnographic cinema. more
![MAKE IT RIGHT! [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/10115.jpg)
MAKE IT RIGHT! [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1988 (G) 21 min
MAKE IT RIGHT! 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. more
![MAKING A BARK CANOE [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/10114.jpg)
MAKING A BARK CANOE [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1969 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 16 min
Two men make a bark canoe in the swamps of coastal Arnhem Land – a process simply observed by filmmaker Roger Sandall. more
MAKING A MARK
2018 (PG) 56 min
A chronicle of creative trailblazing - exploring one of the most personally challenging and financially tenuous of vocations, to live and work in the competitive world of the visual arts in Australia. A superb film about inspiration, aspiration and the hard facts of life. more
![MALBANGKA COUNTRY [from the AIATSIS Collection]](/images/small/9118.jpg)
MALBANGKA COUNTRY [from the AIATSIS Collection]
1975 (Classification Exempt - Ronin Recommends: G) 29 min
The Malbangka family leaves the social problems of Hermannsburg in central Australia to return to their own traditional land and set up their own independent settlement. more