Celluloid Subjects to Digital Directors. Jennifer Debenham

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies AIDC Australian International Documentary Conference ANFB Australian National Film Board ANRC Australian National Research Council ANU Australian National University APA Aboriginal Progressive Association APB Aboriginal Protection Board APU Aboriginal Programs Unit ATOM Australian Teachers of Media ATSIC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission AUSSAT Australian Communications Satellite BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BHP Broken Hill Proprietary BFI British Film Institute CAAMA Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association←xiii | xiv→ CEO Chief Executive Officer CFU Commonwealth Film Unit CHOGM Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings CMS Church Missionary Society CRM Civil Rights Movement FCAATSI Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders FFC Film Finance Corporation FTA Free-to-Air GEMCO Groote Eylandt Mining Company IPU Indigenous Programs Unit MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly MP Member of Parliament NAIBA National Aboriginal and Islanders Broadcasting Association NAIDOC National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee NFSA National Film and Sound Archive NFU National Film Unit NIDF National Indigenous Documentary Fund NIMAA National Indigenous Media Association of Australia NITV National Indigenous Television NUAUS National Union of Australian University Students PAW Pintupi, Anmatjere and Warlpiri Media and Communications PMG Post Master General PY Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara RAAF Royal Australian Air Force RCTS Remote Commercial Television Service SABAR South Australian Board for Anthropological Research←xiv | xv→ SAM South Australian Museum SBS Special Broadcasting Service SFF Sydney Film Festival SMH Sydney Morning Herald UCLA University of California, Los Angeles UN United Nations UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation US United States VAAL Victorian Aborigines Advancement League

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      D O C U M E N T A R Y F I L M C U L T U R E S

      Series Editors:

      Dafydd Sills-Jones, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

      Pietari Kääpä, University of Warwick, UK

      Volume 2

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Introduction

The phenomenon of using film to inform a mass audience began in the early twentieth century. Its invention coincided with three critical moments in Australian history: the federation of the six Australian colonies to form the Australian nation; the rise of the academic discipline of anthropology; and the widespread belief that the nation’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples were on the brink of extinction. In this environment, biological and medical scientists used the medium of film to make what they believed to be permanent records of Aboriginal people for posterity. A century later, the descendants of the “extinct” people were making their own films to tell their own stories for fellow Indigenous¹ peoples and to inform a non-Indigenous audience.

      This is a survey of the extraordinary journey taken by Australian documentary filmmakers from 1901 to 2017 in the visual representation of Australia’s Aboriginal people. Its purpose is to explore the filmmakers’ key role in constructing attitudes towards Australia’s Aboriginal peoples over the last century. The documentary films are a creation of and by Australia’s history, and play a significant role