29 Indigenous Films, Shows, And Documentaries To Enjoy This NAIDOC Week And Beyond
That's your next few weekends sorted.
This week is NAIDOC Week, an annual week dedicated to celebrating the achievements, history and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
For 2020, Netflix decided to partner with National NAIDOC to highlight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content across their platform, NITV/SBS and ABC iView. But beyond these platforms, powerful and rich content starring, written and/or produced by talented Indigenous creators exists on all different areas of the internet.
So, in celebration of NAIDOC Week, we’ve decided to collate some of the best Indigenous content you can stream online, broken down by films, series, and documentaries and specials.
Films
Top End Wedding
Credit: Universal Pictures
Top End Wedding is a rom-com set in the Northern Territory, where Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) and Ned (Gwilym Lee) journey through the remote far north in search of Lauren’s mother, who has recently run away. The pair are set on reuniting Lauren’s parents before they can have their dream wedding that is set to happen in only 10 days. It’s funny, wholesome and a real tear-jerker at times.
Currently available on: Netflix
Goldstone
Credit: Bunya Productions
This crime thriller follows Indigenous detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) on his latest case in the small mining town of Goldstone. While initially in the area to search for a missing tourist, Swan quickly discovers a messy web of crime, trafficking, and corruption at the hands of the town’s mayor, Maureen (Jacki Weaver).
Currently available on: Netflix
Samson and Delilah
Credit: Madman Entertainment
Samson and Delilah tells the story of two alienated 14-year-olds (Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson) who decide to steal the only car in their remote Aboriginal community to flee to Alice Springs in the hopes of eloping. The film is a heart-wrenching, confronting love story that highlights some of the darkest, harshest realities of our country.
Currently available on: Stan
Mad Bastards
Credit: Sundance
Ex-con and general tough man, TJ (Dean Daley-Jones), and his journey to reconnect with his estranged son, Bullet (Lucas Yeeda) acts as the main plot for Mad Bastards. But while on the hunt for the son he’s never known, TJ travels through the Kimberley and is confronted by a Bullet’s grandfather (Greg Tait), a local cop who is determined to break the cycle of mad bastards in his family and the community.
Currently available on: Netflix
Storm Boy
Credit: South Australian Film Corporation
Storm Boy is an Australian classic that follows Mike (Greg Rowe) — a lonely Aussie kid who lives along the coast with his recluse father — and his budding friendship with a local, wise Aboriginal man, Fingerbone Bill (David Gulpilil). The pair bond as they nurse and care for a bunch of orphaned pelican chicks.
Currently available on: Prime Video
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Credit: South Australian Film Corporation
Set in 1931, three girls escape after being taken away from their mother. After being forced into re-education to become domestic workers, Molly (Everlyn Sampi) leads the girls back home via the 3,000 km rabbit-proof fence that stretches from coast to coast.
Currently available on: Stan
The Sapphires
Credit: Hopscotch Films
Set in 1968, a four-person Aboriginal girl group called The Sapphires travel to Vietnam to help entertain the US troops during the war after they’re discovered by Irish talent scout Dave Lovelace (Chris O’Dowd).
Currently available on: Netflix
Satellite Boy
Credit: Satellite Films
Living in an old drive-in cinema with his grandfather (David Gulpilil), Pete (Cameron Wallaby) gets lost in the outback when his home is threatened with demolition. Going on the journey to the city with his best friend Kalmain (Joseph Pedley), to halt the demolition, Pete has to remember the survival skills his grandfather taught him to make it there.
Currently available on: Netflix
Mabo
Credit: Blackfella Films
Mabo tells the story of Torres Strait Islander Eddie Mabo (Jimi Bani), and his 10-year battle with the High Court of Australia to recognise native title and overturn terra nullius. While essentially a film about the legal journey Eddie Mabo went on, Mabo also focuses on the heartwarming love story between he and his wife, Bonita (Deborah Mailman).
Currently available on: YouTube
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Credit: Umbrella Entertainment
Based on the true story of Jimmy Governor, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith focuses on the tale of Jimmie Blacksmith (Tommy Lewis), who murders a white family and then goes into hiding. Already facing abuse as the son of an Aboriginal mother and white father, Blacksmith faces even more vitriol when he goes on to marry a white woman himself, which leads to his brutal killing spree.
Currently available on: Prime Video
Bran Nue Dae
Credit: Roadshow Films
Willie Johnson (Rocky McKenzie), a rebellious Aboriginal student at a Catholic boarding school in Perth, decides to escape and hitchhike his way back home to Broome. Along the way, as his headmaster follows in hot pursuit, Willie meets a bunch of eccentric characters in a joyous musical-film that has been described as “an Aboriginal High School Musical”.
Currently available on: Stan
Sweet Country
Credit: Bunya Productions
A harrowing tale that highlights the extreme division between European settlers and Aboriginal Australians back in the 1920s, Sweet Country follows the story of an Aboriginal man named Sam (Hamilton Morris), as he goes on the run with his wife after killing a white man in self-defence.
Currently available on: Netflix
Where The Green Ants Dream
Credit: Werner Herzog
This Werner Herzog film focuses on the legal and philosophical battle between an Australian mining company hell-bent on setting up a uranium mining site, and the group of Aboriginal elders protecting the sacred location. The group of elders claim that green ants dream underneath the land the company plan to dig into, and if their sleep is disrupted, the world will end. What ensues is a clash between what is legally and morally right.
Currently available on: Prime Video
Toomelah
Credit: Visit Films
Toomelah follows 10-year-old Daniel (Daniel Connors), who joins a gang of drug dealers after getting suspended from school. Set in the remote Indigenous community of Toomelah, Daniel struggles with turf wars, family issues and his identity in this raw look into the parts of Australia that are often unseen.
Currently available on: Netflix
Series
Black Comedy
Credit: ABC
A personal favourite of mine on this list, Black Comedy takes an impressive cast and unapologetically explores what it means to be Black in contemporary Australia through comedy sketches. If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “Well, what’s this then slut?“, then you’re sure to love Black Comedy.
Currently available on: ABC iView
Wrong Kind Of Black
Credit: Princess Pictures
This four-part comedy-drama series is based on the life of Boori Monty Pryor (Clarence Ryan), Melbourne’s hottest DJ, during the time of disco in the ’70s. Called the “Black Superman” for his mixing abilities, Wrong Kind of Black explores what life for Pryor was like during a time where Aboriginal culture was still not welcome in white society.
Currently available on: Netflix
Big Mob Brekky
Credit: SBS
Big Mob Brekky is Australia’s first all-Indigenous breakfast show, focusing on all things morning TV. Launched specifically in line with NAIDOC Week, the show is hosted by journalists Shahni Wellington and Ryan Liddle, and airs at 7.30am each morning.
Currently available on: NITV/SBS On Demand
Dark Place
Credit: ABC
A spooky and chilly anthology of Indigenous horror stories, Dark Place focuses on five, short terrifying tales that are sure to keep you up at night. The scariest part of all? They’re all under 20 minutes-long so you’ll be yearning for more in about an hour-and-a-half.
Currently available on: ABC iView
Going Places With Ernie Dingo
Credit: SBS
National treasure Ernie Dingo has essentially reprised his The Great Outdoors gig with Going Places with Ernie Dingo — except this time it’s Dingo’s show and he goes a lot deeper by actually introducing us to the people who live at Australia’s most iconic destinations, too.
Currently available on: NITV/SBS On Demand
KGB
Credit: ABC
KGB, which stands for Koondoola, Girrawheen and Balga, follows two rookie detectives trying to navigate their way through their new jobs and solve a major case, discovering along the way that most of the suspects are family.
Currently available on: ABC iView
Redfern Now
Credit: Blackfella Films
Redfern Now is a six-part series that focuses on the stories of six Aboriginal families living in Redfern, and is the first series to be commissioned, written, acted and produced by Indigenous Australians. Touching on the contemporary issues Aboriginal people face, each episode explores a new family, whose lives are changed by one single, seemingly insignificant decision or moment.
Currently available on: Stan
Total Control
Credit: ABC
Australian screen legend Deborah Mailman stars as Alex Irving, a fearless Indigenous senator, who finds herself appointed into Senate as a political stunt by Prime Minister Rachel Anderson (Rachel Griffiths). But instead of being a pawn, Alex strives to make real change with her new-found power.
Currently available on: ABC iView
Mystery Road
Credit: Bunya Productions
Mystery Road is a Western crime series that is a spin-off of the films Mystery Road and Goldstone, and takes place in the time between the two. Just like the film namesake, Mystery Road (Season 1 and 2) follows detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) on a mission to solve a couple of disappearances and a murder, with the help of a local copper from each area.
Currently available on: Stan
Cleverman
Credit: Goalpost Pictures
The beauty of Cleverman is that it’s a reimagining of several Dreamtime stories in a superhero context, with two estranged, Indigenous half-brothers reuniting to battle a mythological monster. But despite the show having a dystopian superhero vibe, Cleverman actually touches on important real life issues like border protection, racism, and asylum seekers.
Currently available on: ABC iView
Documentaries
The Final Quarter
Credit: Shark Island Productions
For the sports fans, The Final Quarter tells the story of Adam Goodes, champion AFL footballer and Indigenous leader. In his final three years on the field, Goodes’ “controversial” behaviour quickly turned cheers for the player into boos, and The Final Quarter aims to make Australia take a deeper look into why they attacked a man who just wanted to stop racism.
Currently available on: Stan
Our Law
Credit: Periscope Pictures
Our Law details how Western Australia’s first Indigenous run police station operates. Following the two officers who work there, Our Law explores how Brevet Senior Sergeant Revis Ryder and Brevet Sergeant Wendy Kelly have used cultural ties to rebuild trust in the remote community they’re stationed in.
Currently available on: Netflix
FREEMAN
One of Australia’s most notable and well-loved athletes is Cathy Freeman. 20 years after her historic gold medal win, FREEMAN explores how the nation rallied around an Indigenous Olympian in one of Australia’s most unified, and most celebrated moments.
Currently available on: ABC iView
Gurrumul
Gurrumul is all about the life of Indigenous artist, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Born blind, Gurrumul found his purpose and meaning through music and was inspired by his community and country on Elcho Island in far North East Arnhem Land.
Currently available on: NITV/SBS On Demand from Nov 15
Zach’s Ceremony
Captured over a five year span, Zach’s Ceremony follows Zach’s transition from boyhood to manhood, and his path to self-discovery.
As part of NAIDOC Week, Zach’s Ceremony has been made available digitally from 2pm today.
Currently available on: EventBrite from Nov 12