This impassioned documentary was rejected for broadcast by ABC TV as “biased” and lacking “balance”. John Howard introduced the Intervention legislation in July 2007. Two years later, an official United Nations rapporteur on human rights, Professor James Anaya, described the policy as an “extraordinary measure which infringes on the rights and determinations of Indigenous People”. In this film, two Aboriginal spokespersons – Barbara...

In the Aboriginal community of Mt Liebig, about 300km west of Alice Springs, a group of young women talk about the importance of bush food in their culture and its relationship to good health. In contrast, they associate sickness with “takeaway shop food” and describe Alice Springs as a “takeaway town: takeaway food, takeaway grog and takeaway sickness”. The women visit the nearby Irantji waterhole with a group of children to teach them how...

"Haunted and haunting. . . . With fearlessness and humility, in a narrative that flows more artfully than ever between destruction and rebirth, Erdrich has opened herself to possibilities beyond what we merely see—to the dead alive and busy, to the breath of trees and the souls of wolves—and inspires readers to open their hearts to these mysteries as well."— Washington Post Book World

From the author

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Yellow Fella is a portrait of Tom E. Lewis who as a young man in 1978 was chosen by director Fred Schepisi to star in The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. The life of the character he played was hauntingly close to his own - a restless young man of mixed heritage, struggling between two cultures to find his own identity. Tom's mother is an Indigenous woman from southern Arnhem Land who was working as a station hand and cook when she met Tom's father, a...

A delightful observational documentary about the making of a number seven boomerang by four senior traditional men from Yuelamu, west of Alice Springs in central Australia. The men talk about how they were taught by their elders using bush materials, and are now teaching a new generation using some modern tools, to keep traditional law and culture strong. We follow the hunt for the wood, the shaping, the smoothing and the painting of the boomerangs...

The Saint Teresa Church stands proudly in the Aboriginal community of Ltyentye Apurte, a township of 500 people, 80km south-east of Alice Springs. This is a Catholic Church like no other. Agnes Palmer, an Arrernte woman, grew up in a Catholic Mission and as an adult felt that she had been given a story to tell about God and the Creation. She became a driving force in a project to paint the bare white walls of the community church. In 2002, a professional...

David Tranter continues his series of outstanding films which document the Dreaming stories and history of his Alyawarr heritage. As in Tranters other films - Boomerang Today, Crookhat and Camphoo, Karlu Karlu and Willaberta Jack - the stories are told by Elders in the community. In this case three old men, Donald (Crookhat) Akemarr Thompson, Alec Apetyarr Peterson and Casey Akemarr Holmes travel by four-wheel drive out to a surprising strip of...

A collection of 22 films made by Ian Dunlop over a 30 year period with the Yolngu, the Aboriginal people of northeast Arnhem Land. Yirrkala was an isolated mission station until the coming of a huge bauxite mine in the late 1960s. The impact of the mine on the Yolngu and their response is a major theme of this long-term film project.. Each film stands on its own but each is also part of a rich mosaic. The relationship between people and their clans,...