History

Aboriginal living. 30m. The coming of the Aborigines to Australia about 60,000 years ago. Also looks at climatic conditions and the subsequent changes which affected the geography of the Australian continent.

Discovering Australia's aboriginal history. 25m. Aims to encourage students to appreciate the different ways people view and present history and to increase their awareness of the contribution aboriginal history has made to our understanding.

Frontier Series. ABC, 1997. This brilliant series takes a fresh look at the struggles between the Aborigines and the white settlers and colonists over possession of land. It also documents 19th century beliefs about race, one of which was that the Aborigines were an inferior race doomed to extinction. It uses extensive primary sources, including letters, diaries, photos, maps, newspaper articles and documents. There are three episodes: 1788-1830: they must always consider us enemies. 60m. Focuses on the struggles between the new settlers and the Aborigines for land in New South Wales and Tasmania.

Stories from Australia's forgotten war: 1830-1860. 60m. The slaughter and dispossession of Aborigines trying to defend themselves and their rights to their lands.

Stories from Australia's forgotten war: 1860-1938. 50m. Looks at the conflict in Central Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Black wars. 30m. Discusses a new interpretation of the conflict of Tasmanian Aborigines with the white settlers by the historian Henry Reynolds in which he maintains that the Aborigines made an unwritten treaty with the then Governor, which allowed them to retain sovereignty over the land.

1967 ... citizens at last? 20 m. Focuses on the events leading to the referendum. Includes the 1965 Freedom Ride, and the Wave Hill strike. Faith Bandler narrates the story.

Achieving equality

Lousy little sixpence. 50m. 1983. A remarkable film which uses archival film and Aborigines' own accounts to tell the story of the struggle of Aboriginal people to achieve equality. Covers the period from the beginning of the century to the 1967 referendum, and includes life on the reservations and the work of Aborigines in the thirties in organising to advance the cause of Aboriginal people.

A history of aboriginal political struggle for equality. 30m. Aboriginal elder and political activist Chicka Dixson outlines the events this century which have marked the progress of Aboriginal people towards equality with other Australians. Starting with the role of the Aboriginal Protection Board, he describes the Freedom Ride, Tent Embassy, the setting up of the Aboriginal Legal Service and other milestones. Archival film is also used.

The Stolen generation

Stolen children. 30m. 1997 Questions the role of the Christian churches in forcibly assimilating Aboriginal children into white society, with a particular focus on the Mission at Croker Island. Some of the Aborigines who were sent there, and subsequently moved to other Missions in South Australia tell of their sense of isolation and loss of identity due to their removal from their parents and their homelands, and later, from friends and siblings.

Bringing them home. 30m. 1997 A powerful and moving documentary designed to make Australians aware of some of the material presented to the "Stolen Children" Report, and some of its conclusions. Witnesses tell their stories of separation, alienation and deprivation, and the Chairperson of the Inquiry, Sir Ronald Wilson, explains why he believes that the then Government policies constituted a form of genocide.

Land Rights

Relationship with country. 15m. This program is set in Broome, where the Yawua and Bardi people tell their stories about their strong association with the land through the Dreaming. Also covers the progress of their Land Rights claim.

Community development and determination. 15m. Features two major case studies. Oone tells the story of the long struggle for the first successful Land Rights claim. The second focuses on the Yarrabah community in northern Queensland..

Aboriginal land rights. 30m. Warren Mundine outlines the events in the 19th century which effectively dispossessed Aborigines of their land. He also covers the growth of the Land Rights movement in the 1960, including the Tent Embassy, the first Land Rights Acts, and the establishment of Land Councils in N.S.W.

Dhuway, an Australian diaspora and homecoming. 60m. In 1993 the Yidhuwarra people of Cape York applied for the return of their traditional land to make a national park. This documentary tells their story and puts the Land Rights struggle in Queensland in a historical and cultural context.

Mabo - life of an island man. The story of the remarkable Eddie Mabo, whose struggle to gain recognition of his own ancestral land on the Murray Islands led to a case in the High Court and the historic Mabo decision.

After Mabo. 1 hr 30m. Examines the political conflict arising out of the Mabo decision and the attempts to reach a satisfactory solution on land rights for all parties.

After Mabo. 40m. 1997 Case studies designed to help students understand all aspects of the Mabo decision, including its limitations, and the positions of the Aborigines and the white landholders.

Mabo myths. 30m. Aims to clarify the Mabo decision and its meaning by carefully examining some of the public statements that have been made about the security of various types of land title in Australia.

Native Title. 25m. 1997 Government and Opposition members, pastoralists and lawyers discuss the Wik legislation. Issues raised include treatment of Aborigines, mining leases, race and pastoralists rights.

Aboriginal people

Black Angels. 50m. Gordon Bennett talks about his upbringing as a non-aboriginal and his struggle to achieve an identity as an Australian and an Aboriginal.

Neville Bonner. 30m. This outstanding public figure, who has achieved many "firsts", speaks of his life and the values and beliefs that have sustained him.

Blacktracker. 30m. A documentary on the life of Sergeant Alexander Riley, an aboriginal tracker who was instrumental in solving at least seven murders, but who suffered from racism and discrimination despite his achievements.

Mick Dodson. 20m. The man who is Social Justice Commissioner with the Human Rights Commission speaks of his tragic early life and his belief of the need for reconciliation between whites and blacks.

Ruby Langford Ginibi. 30m. Born on a mission station, Ruby Ginibi speaks of her childhood, her relationships with both white and aboriginal men, her joy in her many children and the impulse which compelled her to write "Don't take your love to town" and "Real deadly".

Lois O'Donohue. 30m. 1994 This outstanding Aboriginal activist, the first Chairperson of ATSIC, talks frankly about her experiences as one of the "lost generation". She also describes her early life as a nurse and her work for Aboriginal people.

Life today

Family and kinship. 15m. Reveals the kinship structure of traditional Aboriginal society and explains what an extended family means to urban Aborigines.

Shifting shelter. 30m. Four young Aborigines living in rural Australia speak of their hopes, their dreams, their lives as they are lived now and their expectations for the future.

My life as I live it. 60m. 1993 Made by the aboriginal filmmaker Essie Coffey - the "Bush Queen" - documents problems in the rural community of Brewarrina such as alcoholism and suicide, as well as important initiatives taken by Aborigines to provide work for Aboriginal people, and their desire to take more control over their own lives by running candidates in Council elections.

A matter of identity. 30m. Four Aborigines, including the artists Bronwyn Bancroft and the musician Kev Carmody examine what it means to be an aboriginal artist working in Australia in the 1990s.

Mission accomplished? 60m. 1994 Examines the role of the church in aboriginal communities today. While Catholics and Baptists have incorporated aboriginal rituals into traditional church ceremonies, others, such as the Lutheran, maintain a more patriarchal attitude. Also looks at the arrival of the missionaries in North and Central Australia in the 19th century, the conversion of the Aborigines and some of the consequences of this.

Between Worlds: the urban Aborigine. 30m. Shows how two successful Aboriginal women have overcome significant difficulties to achieve their goals. Balanced against this is the story of two teenage Aboriginal girls completing high school in Darwin.

Aboriginal traditional life

The burning bush. 30m. Looks at the way in which Australian vegetation has adapted to poor soils and how Aborigines used fire to keep the vegetation down and to create conditions which provided more food.

Ceremonial cycles. 15m. A group of Pitjantjara women from the Central Desert perform witchetty grub dance cycles and explain how this ties in with creation stories.

Bush food and medicine. 15m. Set on the northern coast of Arnhem Land it takes the viewer into the bush to look at the great variety of bush foods and the collection and use of bush medicines.

Language. 15m. Shows how schools are developing programs to teach Aboriginal languages. Also, we meet a group of teenagers in an urban environment and hear them speaking Aboriginal English.

Technology. 15m. Features two case studies. One shows how Aboriginal people continue to make and use traditional technology. The other takes us to the Centre of Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs where Aborigines are adapting contemporary technology to suit Aboriginals in remote communities.

Aboriginal culture

Media and the Arts. 15m. Looks at representation of Aboriginal people in the media and the use of arts to breakdown stereotypes.

Images of us. 25 m. Young Aborigines living between two cultures discuss the relevance of their traditional culture to today's world.

More than legends. 60m. Looks at the myths and legends of four aboriginal communities and explores how the culture of these communities has been affected by white settlement.

Dance is our language. 30m. 1992 A celebration of aboriginal dance by the students of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance Theatre. We see the students at rehearsal and part of the final performance, and hear what being able to participate in the dance company means to them.

Tribal voice : Youthu Yindi. 60m. A celebration of Australia's most popular indigenous music group.

Saltwater Soul. 60m. Features Christine Anu, a Torres Strait Islander singer, who as well as performing speaks of the traditional beliefs that inspire her music.

Stephen Albert. 30m. Stephen "Baamba" Albert explains how he became a musician, actor and entertainer, and performs his songs.

Rita Mills. 30m. This singer, from Thursday Island, made her name performing as a guitarist and lead singer with the aboriginal group the Mills Sisters. She now works as a solo artist.

ICAM. 30m. Discusses the music of Kev Carmody and the message he takes to the Aboriginal people.

Aim 4 more. 30m. Profiles a group of four Aboriginal and Islander singers. They tell how they came together and their aspirations for the future.

Aborigines in Sport

Buffalo legends. 60m. The story of how part-aborigines in Darwin in the 1920s, despite facing prejudice because they were considered "mongrels", formed a multicultural football team with its own independent club and became the most popular and successful team in the country.

Interview with Cathy Freeman. 15m. 1997. This outstanding athlete speaks of her desire to win at the Sydney Olympics and her reaction to racist remarks and the criticism levelled at her for displaying the aboriginal flag.. We see footage of her greatest triumphs as well as scenes of her at home with her family and with her first trainer, Raylene Boyle.