Always Was Always Will Be, SBS On Demand 2024:
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/collection/always-was-always-will-be:
‘Celebrate First Nations excellence with a collection of acclaimed movies, series and compelling documentaries about remarkable people.’ The collection cover subjects such as First Peoples’ biographies, First Nations culture, dramas, documentaries, entertainment, Australian colonial history, dispossession, First Nations news, current affairs and commentary, racism, sport, stolen generations, truth-telling and a lot more through the following kinds of programs.
Among the the many titles are: The Drover’s Wife, Her Name is Nanny Nellie, The Australian Wars, The First Inventors, First Australians, Rabbit-proof Fence, High Ground, Wulgulora 2024, Audrey Napanangka, Gurrumul, Servant or Slave, History Bites Back, Larapinta, Rebel with a Cause, Exile and the Kingdom, Another Country, Yolngu Boy, Harold, Off Country, Waiting for Harry, Two Laws, Wik vs Queensland, She Who Must Be Loved, Putuparri and the Rainmakers, Our Law, Gama Bunggul, DanceRites 2023, The Habits of New Norcia, Manganinnie, Emu Runner, Bedevil, Etched in Bone, Lousy Little Sixpence, Land Wars, Ningla-A-Na, Ngangkari, The Song Keepers, Lionel, Westward: Djalu’s Legacy, Stolen Generations, Looks Looky Here Come Cooky, True Colours, Keeping Hope, Sing About This Country, Going Places With Ernie Dingo, The Beach, Robbie Hood, Storm Boy, Araatika! Rise Up, Samson & Delilah, We Don’t Need a Map, Blackbird, Black Man’s Houses, The Balanda and the Bark Canoes, Women of the Sun, Women of the Sun: 25 Years Later, Dalai Dreamtime, Lifeblood, Occupation: Native, Treaty, Incarceration Nation and The Land We’re On with Penelope Towney. There are also links to First Nations news and current affairs programs on NITV and SBS.
Some of these programs, related to achievements and culture of First Nations, First Nations and Australian colonial history, and the continuing truth of Australian history, are listed individually below.
Another Country, Documentary 2015. Director Molly Reynolds
‘David Gulpilil tells the story of when his people’s way of life was interrupted by ours, by forcibly imposing a new culture over an old culture, and the consequent clashes with all manner of things.’ Watch On SBS On Demand: https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movie/another-country/1415699523925
Exile and the Kingdom, Minseries, Documentary, 1993. Director Frank Rijavec
‘The story of the Aboriginal people of Roebourne in north-western Australia, including the Yindjibarndi, Banjima and Kurram people, and their continuing struggle against the colonial forces of the 2oth century.’ Watch on SBS On Demand: https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/exile-and-the-kingdom
May be available elsewhere after season expires on SBS.
First Australians, Documentary series, 2008, SBS On Demand, Directors, Beck Cole and Rachel Perkins
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/first-australians/season-1
The history of Australia from an Indigenous peoples’ perspective, beginning with the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney and ending in 1993 with Eddie Kolki Mabo’s legal challenge. Episodes include: They Have Come to Stay, Her Will to Survive, Freedom of Our Lifetime, There is No Other Law, An Unhealthy Government Experiment, A Fair Deal for a Dark Race, We Are No Longer Shadows
A book titled First Australians: An Illustrated History, edited by Rachel Perkins and Marcia Langton, was published by The Miegunyah Press in 2008. Contributors include Marcia Langton, James Boyce, Bruce Pascoe, RG Kimber, Steve Kinnane, Wayne Atkinson and Noel Loos.
First Nation Farmers, ABCiView: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/first-nation-farmers
For millennia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have harvested Australia flora and fauna for food. Landline presents stories from its archive exploring the past and future of Australia’s First Nation Farmers. (To access ABC iView properly you need to create a free account with a password.)
First Weapons, Documentary, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2023, ABC TV
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJfEFq8eXLQ
Stream all episodes on ABC iView. (To access ABC iView properly you need to create a free account with a password.)
“Phil Breslin meets weapon makers and science experts, lifting the lid on the genius of Australia’s oldest and most innovative weapons.”
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/first-weapons
Episode 1 – Returning Boomerang
“In South Australia, host Phil Breslin, weapon maker Moogy Sumner and our team of experts unpack the science of Australia’s most iconic and scientifically complex weapon – the Returning Boomerang.”
Episode 2 –Amerr
“Host Phil Breslin observes senior weapon makers as they craft the Amerr. Experts reveal the scientific principles, followed by a challenge of speed and skill highlighting how the weapon was once one of the fastest on earth.”
Episode 3 – Leangle and Parrying Shield
“Host Phil Breslin and weapon makers Brendan Kennedy and Trevor Kirby unpack the Leangle and Parrying Shield before honouring Aboriginal Cricketer Dick-a-Dick’s crowd-pleasing demonstrations from 1868.”
Episode 4 – Kodj
“Phil Breslin joins weapon maker Larry Blight in Albany, WA, to discover the Kodj. Our experts unpack the science of this versatile weapon before Phil, Larry and a champion axeman face off in a showdown of speed and skill.”
Episode 5 – Long Spear
“Weapon maker Dave mangenner Gough shows host Phil Breslin how to craft and use the Allener. He then joins our experts to unpack the intricate scientific principles behind this extraordinary spear.”
Episode 6 – Wartilykirri
“Australia’s most lethal boomerang, the Wartilykirri. Host Phil Breslin and weapon maker Joseph Williams unpack this non-returning boomerang and witness its manoeuvrability and force in a medieval battle. (Final)”
High Ground, High Ground Pictures, 2020. Director Stephen Maxwell Johnson. A fictional thriller set in the Northern Territory in the 1930s. In a bid to save the last of his family, Gutjuk, a young Aboriginal man, teams up with ex-soldier Travis to track down his uncle, Baywara, the most dangerous warrior in the Northern Territory.
The film includes a depiction of the real Gan Gan massacre, that happened in 1911, when police and colonists killed more than 30 First Nations men, women and children. View a trailer here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9286908/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video (February 2024). May be available on other streaming services.
Jandamarra–Aboriginal Geronimo, Rebel Films, 12 March 2017. Jandamarra (1870–1897) was an Aboriginal warrior and leader of the Bunuba people from Western Australia. The Dictionary of Australian Biography has included an entry on him by Howard Pedersen in the Indigenous Australia collection at: https://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/jandamarra-8822
You can watch the documentary Jandamarra–Aboriginal Jeronimo on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4a2Ik5YvT0
Jandamarra’s War, Electric Pictures, Trailer, 4 May 2011. You can watch a trailer for this film, narrated by Ernie Dingo, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXejE5DXR9E
DVD available: https://electricpictures.com.au/produc…
VOD available: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/jandamarra…
Limbo, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2023
‘Travis Hurley, a jaded detective, arrives in the remote outback town of Limbo to investigate the cold case murder of local Indigenous girl Charlotte Hayes 20 years ago.’ For many viewers, this film by Ivan Sen, photographed in black and white, revisits an all too familiar theme of the unsolved disappearances of young women in mysterious circumstances, not only in Australia, but overseas.
ABC iView: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/limbo
Looky Looky Here Comes Cooky, Documentary, Tamarind Tree Pictures Pty Ltd, Roar Film Pty Ltd, 2020
Presenter, co-writer and slam poet Steven Oliver takes the audience on an incredible and scenic journey across Australia from the cliffs of Kurnell to the Torres Strait. As he travels the land interrogating Cook’s legacy, he poses the question – in 2020, does Australia have a blurred history of Cook? Available on SBS On Demand:
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/1773167683939/looky-looky-here-comes-cooky
Manganinnie, Adventure, 1980, Director, John Honey
“In the 1830s in Tasmania, Aboriginal woman Manganinnie survives a raid that claims the life of her husband. In the company of a lost girl named Joanna, she searches for her people.” Watch on SBS On Demand: https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movie/manganinnie/48205379935
Stuff the British Stole
Shots Fired, Stuff the British Stole, ABC Radio National, Marc Fennell, 20 December 2020
This program covers the complicated and controversial story about the Gweagal shield, and spears that Captain James Cook and his men took from the shores of Kamay Botany Bay in 1770 after their first encounter with First Peoples near today’s La Perouse, Sydney, New South Wales. Listen to this fascinating, on-going story here: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/stuff-the-british-stole/shots-fired/12868096
Sweet Country
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Sweet Country, 2017, Adventure, Crime, Drama. released 6 April 2018, Bunya Productions, Director, Warwick Thornton https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6958212/ A Western, based on a a series of true events, set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s. For more information about the film, see: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Country_(2017_film). Streaming on Netflix (February 2024). May be available to buy, download or rent on other services. |
The Australian Wars Collection, SBS/NITV, 2022
The Australian Wars Collection includes:
The Australian Wars, 2022
Filmmaker Rachel Perkins reveals the truth of The Australian Wars–the battles fought on home soil’. The story of Australia’s longest and most defining war[s] has been largely key silent–until now. NITV, 25 August 2022:
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/filmmaker-rachel-perkins-reveals-the-truth-of-the-australian-wars-the-battles-fought-on-home-soil/1t4z93cxq
The Australian Wars documentary: three x 1 hour episodes began on 21 September 2022 on SBSTV:
‘Rachel Perkins journeys across Australia to explore the bloody battles fought on Australian soil and the war[s] that established the Australian nation, seeking to change the narrative of the nation.’ SBS On Demand:
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-australian-wars
Land Wars, 2022
Special NITV program, 54 minutes, SBS On Demand:
A group of Indigenous experts discuss colonial conflicts between Aboriginal people and the British across Australia:
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/land-wars/2072694851847
The Australian Wars: Evidence from Queensland, 2022:
Special, Documentary, Blackfella Films
Journalist Kerry O’Brien discusses frontier violence from a Queensland perspective, drawing on the records found in Queensland State Archives. On YouTube from 11 September 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpIQEPgsPO4
The Drover’s Wife, 2021, Drama, Director, Leah Purcell
On a remote homestead in the Snowy Mountains, a lonely bushwoman tries to run the family farm and raise her children while her husband is away.
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/movie/the-drovers-wife/2296941635964
The First Inventors, Director: Larissa Behrendt, National Indigenous Television Network (NITV)/Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), SBS On Demand, 2023.
“Rob Collins and a team of First Nations investigators delve into 65,000 years of Aboriginal Australian invention, looking at how landscapes were transformed, how events were recorded, the use of navigation tools, and how societies were organised.”:
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/the-first-inventors-premieres-on-nitv/sdkjkq46n
(To access SBS On Demand properly you need to create a free account with a password.)
Season 1
Episode 1 –Design to Survive
“Rob Collins and his team explore the innovative creations that enabled First Nations people to thrive, ranging from transforming volcanic terrains into fish farms to mastering the art of harnessing dangerous fire for survival.”
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-first-inventors
Episode 2 – The Science of Story
“Rob Collins leads a daring expedition to substantiate the ancient scientific storytelling of First Nations people, who recount Ice Age events from 10,000 years past.”
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/watch/2219829827888
Episode 3 – A Connected Continent
“Rob Collins delves into the remarkable connectivity of First Nations people, exploring their communication networks, extensive trade routes and kinship systems that fostered a highly interconnected society on an immense and unforgiving continent.”
https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/watch/2225052227769
Episode 4 – Navigating the Future
“The collaboration of Indigenous knowledge and advanced science drives the development of life-saving medications. However, in order to address the challenges of the future, it is essential to first reconcile and heal the wounds of the past.”: https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/watch/2228190275695
Who Do You Think You Are, SBS On Demand, Season 15 Episode 4. Wayne Blair. Actor and director Wayne Blair uncovers the little-known story of his Woppaburra ancestors from Queensland’s Keppel Islands and discovers an extraordinary twist in his paternal ancestry: https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/who-do-you-think-you-are/season-15/who-do-you-think-you-are-wayne-blair-s15-ep4/2335341123724#:~:text=Think%20You%20Are%3F-,Australia%3A%20Season%2015%20Episode,Wayne%20Blair&text=Actor%20and
%20director%20Wayne%20Blair,twist%20in%20his%20paternal%20ancestry.
Page created 11 November 2021. Some material shown on this page was previously listed under the Video button. You can find more electronic resources under: Videos Databases Podcasts
Compiled by Jane Morrison 2012–2023. Updated 14 November 2021, 1, 30 October 2022, 13 July 2023, 20 July 2023, 6, 20 September 2023, 1 February 2024, 11 June 2024, 24 April 2025, 28 April 2025.