Perth Voice Interactive

A MINI film festival that champions the resilience and self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be held at Fremantle Arts Centre next weekend.

Part of the City of Fremantle’s Truth Telling program, three feature-length documentaries and one short film will be shown over two nights.

Two of the films – Dhakiyarr Vs The King and The Skin of Others – were directed or co-directed by Tom Murray, a guest speaker at the event.

For the past 25 years, prof Murray has been making documentaries that acknowledge the history of colonialism and Indigenous culture.

He’s also the founding director of the Creative Documentary Research Centre at Macquarie University, and was awarded the Max Crawford Medal, the highest accolade for early career humanities scholars in Australia.

“Making these films with First Nations leaders and elders in their own Country has reinforced to me that our most important current nation-building task is to come to a reasonable and fair-minded understanding of our national history,” Prof Murray says.

“Without this we can’t move forward with any real and abiding national pride. We need to understand how Australia was colonised and we need to understand what the implications of colonisation have been (and continue to be) for Aboriginal people. After this, our next task is to act on this knowledge in a way that facilitates the dreams and aspirations of Indigenous people and communities, alongside those of settler communities.” 

The award-winning Dhakiyarr Vs The King explores the controversial murder trial of the great Yolngu leader Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda. 70 years later, descendants tell the story of two laws, two cultures and two families coming to terms with the past.

“As a filmmaker I witnessed some incredible moments making these films,” Prof Murray says.

“In Dhakiyarr vs the King we see a ‘makarrata’ ceremony (a restorative justice process that is designed to facilitate healing after law-breaking trauma).

“There is also a public conciliation ceremony that reminds us what grace looks like when leaders and communities come together to acknowledge the truths of our past.” 

The Skin of Others is a story of modern Australia – its violent past and its future potential – told through the extraordinary life of Aboriginal WW I soldier Douglas Grant (1885-1951). Featuring acclaimed Indigenous actor Balang Tom E. Lewis in his final performance as Grant, and guest appearances from Max Cullen and Archie Roach, this film movingly interweaves the lives of Grant and Lewis: two truly remarkable men.

“In The Skin of Others the wonderful and very much missed Uncle Archie Roach talks about his dream that we can all meet together on the intercultural bridge of our Australian future – and once there we can develop ‘a new story for this country … one that we are all authors of.’

“These were profound things to have been involved in, and will stay with me forever.”

Also on the bill is Wee War – Fireteller Film and Story (a short film about Weewar, the first Nyungar man to be tried under white law in the WA colony in 1840) and Whispering in our hearts, which follows a modern-day Aboriginal community coming to terms with the execution of family members at Mowla Bluff in 1916 by police and local pastoralists.

They return to the area where the killings took place to ceremonially put to rest the spirits of their dead.

“As a person making these films and living in communities, it has taught me a lot about how the whole of Australia is criss-crossed with dreamings and stories and knowledge and skills that have made living here for over 60,000 years both rich and possible,” Prof Murray says.

“And I’ve learnt that whatever First Australians want to share about this heritage should be cherished. There are songs in this country that are reliably over 10,000 years old. 

“Australia is an amazing and wonderful country and we are lucky to live here. And it’s in our collective interest that we cherish and honour what we have – and properly acknowledge our history, so that we can move forward together with dignity.” 

Held under the stars in the atmospheric front garden at Fremantle Arts Centre, Focus – First Nation Films is on Jan 25 and 26.

The event will be hosted by the charismatic Ron Bradfield Jnr, who runs Yarns R Us, and the Sunday night screening takes place after free afternoon music from the Kiwirrkurra Band. For more info see fac.org.au.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK