The earliest recorded film by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person is a nine and a half minute short produced by Bill Onus in 1946. It is untitled, and collates seemingly unconnected footage of First Nations soldiers, boys painted for ceremony, and excerpts of a 1946 theatre piece about the prolonged Pilbara walk-off.

Onus’ film was never released, and its existence only became widely known after its rediscovery in 2013 at the National Film and Sound Archive. Before that, 1970s activist and documentarian Bruce McGuinness was called the first Aboriginal filmmaker. He and his peers – like Essie Coffey, the first female Indigenous director – are heralded as pioneers of First Nations filmmaking and self-determination on-screen, whose prominence coincided with the explosion of the Australian New Wave in the 1970s and ‘80s.

But while mainstream Australian directors were emulating the Hollywood style and subject matter, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander filmmakers were harnessing the power of the camera to tell their stories through their own lens. The early documentary makers blazed a trail for the first narrative filmmakers like Brian Syron and Tracey Moffatt. Those who came after are now household names – Rachel Perkins, Warwick Thornton, Leah Purcell, Ivan Sen… the list goes on.

Since the 1980’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Media Associations have been producing video program content for both their community and wider audiences. Some of the earlier productions to crossover to mainstream include the documentary Straight from Yudaman’s Mouth and the Bush Mechanics series, produced by Townsville Aboriginal and Islander Media Association, and Warlpiri Media respectively.

On broadcast television both the ABC and SBS premiered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander current affairs programs from 1989. First in Line (SBS) and Blackout (ABC) aired stories and documentaries produced and presented by First Nations journalists and producers.

Screen Australia First Nations and NITV

During this period, in 1993, Screen Australia’s First Nations department was established. Maori and Malyangapa woman Angela Bates has been Head of First Nations since 2021. ‘Our core focus is to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and the powerful screen stories authored by First Nations Australians,’ she said. ‘To see ourselves reflected on screen authentically is incredibly powerful and important.’

Another huge step forward in the growth of First Nations presence on Australian screens came in 2007, with the launch of Australia’s first Indigenous TV station, National Indigenous Television (NITV).

‘The role of NITV is to, first and foremost, tell Indigenous stories,’ said Adam Manovic, a Gurang Gurang man and Acting Head of Commissioning and Production at NITV. ‘Since NITV started 17 years ago there’s been a massive move forward and you now see First Nations faces in the mainstream, which is such a big win.’

And the stats prove it. Screen Australia’s Seeing Ourselves report from 2023 – which surveyed Australian television from 2016-2021 – found that First Nations people made up 7.2% of characters in Australian productions – up from 4.8% in the previous reporting period (2011-2015). It’s direct evidence of the work of these bodies and others like them in widening the lens of the Australian screen.

‘It’s proof of what’s possible when we are empowered to tell stories from our perspective,’ Angela Bates said. ‘It gives credibility to stories in a way that can’t be replicated, slowly breaking down stereotypes and barriers. First Nations-led dramas like Mystery Road and Total Control no longer just appeal to local viewers but global audiences too.’

Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy was the only Australian film to feature at Venice Film Festival this year, and Thornton’s son Dylan River’s newest project, Thou Shalt Not Steal, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September before its release.

This work is not limited to narrative content. ‘We have journalists, we have news broadcasters… pretty much the most important thing, because getting news out and telling it in our voice is so important,’ said Manovic. ‘And then events we do like the Koori Knockout, like the National Indigenous Fashion Awards, the National Indigenous Music Awards, NAIDOC… a lot of the people who are working on these shows are First Nations.’

There is also a big focus on documentaries, many of which are part of the Reconciliation Film Club catalogue.

Reconciliation Film Club

In 2018, SBS and NITV worked with Reconciliation Australia to launch the Reconciliation Film Club (RFC), a catalogue of episodic and feature-length documentaries – all from First Nations filmmakers – that are available to hire for screenings by the public. Hosting a screening brings people together and supports First Nations filmmakers, who earn 100% of proceedings. In the increasingly fractured distribution landscape, initiatives like Reconciliation Film Club are vital.

‘As a small, specialist distributor of independent social documentaries, we are genuinely enthusiastic about Reconciliation Film Club and love it when one of our films is selected for its slate,’ said Andrew Pike, Managing Director at Ronin Films, distributors of multiple film club titles. ‘In the current climate, popular streaming platforms are hard to compete with: they don’t want our social documentaries, and rarely take First Nations stories, so the work of Reconciliation Film Club is really important to us and our filmmakers – and to the audiences.’

Reconciliation Film Club offers films and documentaries on art, activism, history, politics, justice, and culture. Screening a film is an opportunity to learn more about issues that affect Australia as a whole, or simply to connect with your own community.

Ingrid Langtry from Assemble Papers organised one of the more than 150 film club screenings during National Reconciliation Week. ‘Screening a locally relevant piece was important for our work place,’ she said. ‘Kutcha’s Koorioke features local spaces that we engage with regularly and that helps connect people with stories.’

Hosting a Reconciliation Film Club screening is one of the many small – but important – actions you can take towards advancing reconciliation.

‘These stories are more than entertainment; they are powerful,’ Angela Bates concluded. ‘Our industry, and the nation, can only become stronger through these stories.’