As we reflect on NAIDOC week, it is important to keep engaging and consuming First Nation peoples voices and stories.
This year, filmmakers have captured more than a few remarkable First Nations stories, showcasing kinship, activism and extraordinary resilience. Here are our top four movies/tv shows that elegantly highlight Indigenous past, present and future.
The First Inventors
The new series “The First Inventors” on NITV and Network Ten highlights the extraordinary knowledge and inventions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The themes of each episode explore how Indigenous knowledge in navigation, aeronautics, kinship, memory, trade and communication helps us to understand our country’s past and how we might navigate our future.
The New Boy
This film is rightfully receiving a lot of praise recently. Twenty years in the making, the cinematography is glorious, and the collaboration between director Warwick Thorton and actor Cate Blanchett is perfection. It is the story of a 9 year old unnamed aboriginal orphan who arrives at a remote monastery in the middle of the night run by a renegade untraditional nun. The film is showing now at all good cinemas.
You Can Go Now
Another brilliant Larissa Behrendt production. The recent documentary “You Can Go Now” highlights fifty years of first nations activism in Australia through the lens of contemporary Australian Aboriginal artist Richard Bell. It’s a powerful tribute to a man who has dedicated his entire life to art, activism and protest.
Limbo
Directed by Indigenous auteur Ivan Sen, Limbo is a crime/ mystery set in a sun-scorched Australian opal mining town. It features a jaded detective who arrives to investigate the murder of a local Indigenous girl 20 years earlier. The crime still feels like fresh trauma for the girl’s family and the local Indigenous community, but for the town’s white members it is viewed as ancient history. Sen describes the film as “a story that affected my family and also a lot of other Indigenous families around Australia ”. The film premieres on ABCTV and iview on Sunday July 9 at 8.30pm.