For Our Elders

The NFSA's NAIDOC Week program Ngara, Buwindja, Nangamai has been curated by Gillian Moody, award-winning filmmaker and the NFSA’s Senior Manager, Indigenous Connections. Gillian was inspired by the 2023 NAIDOC Week theme, ‘For Our Elders’. From the NAIDOC website: 

Across every generation, our Elders have played, and continue to play, an important role and hold a prominent place in our communities and families. 

 

They are cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones.

The program includes:

— screenings and an exclusive performance (Ngara/listen)

— a collection of titles available to stream on NFSA Player (Buwindja/remember)

— a selection of articles, clips and excerpts from our collection (Nangamai/dream).

Ngara (Listen)

Ngara ('Listen' in Dharawal language) was our Arc Cinema program for NAIDOC Week 2023.

It included feature films from acclaimed directors Warwick Thornton (The New Boy, Samson and Delilah) and Rachel Perkins (NFSA Restores: Radiance), plus two landmark documentaries (Buried Country, NFSA Restores: Lousy Little Sixpence).

In bringing this program to Arc Cinema, Gillian says, 'The NFSA is committed to sharing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stories that represent the achievements, the celebrations and the difficult conversations of our past'.

Buwindja (Remember)

The Buwindja Collection, available to stream on NFSA Player, celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trailblazers, icons and dreamers.

You can access 17 compelling stories – more than 24 hours of screen time – in feature films, documentaries, TV series, song, dance, animation and more.

‘Buwindja represents an opportunity for Australians to reflect on the part they play in ensuring that the voice that our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders have fought for in the past and present continues to be heard', says Gillian. 

‘I curated it with the hope of inspiring audiences to reflect, imagine and act when they listen to and watch these stories.’

View a preview of the Buwindja Collection below: 

STREAM THE BUWINDJA COLLECTION ON NFSA PLAYER

Nangamai (Dream)

The NFSA collection contains thousands of items about, for and by First Nations peoples. They are stories of struggle, strength and the ongoing fight for equality. Some of the stories available on our website are collected in Nangamai.

One of them is the article A Short History of Indigenous Filmmaking. It outlines the compelling arc of First Nations storytelling on film in this country, from early representations through a 'white' lens to a generation of filmmakers telling their own stories on screen.

Many of these filmmaking trailblazers began their careers making short films and you can see their early work in our online collection, Short Films by First Nations Filmmakers, also available on the Nangamai page.

Gillian says, 'I hope the Nangamai stories will inspire audiences to dream big, to remember that images, music and words can change lives. The NFSA is a proud custodian of many items that combine to create a living memory of who we are, who we have been and who we want to be in our futures.'

See more online First Nations stories from our collection curated on the Nangamai page.

Main image: Djakapurra Munyarryun in Spear (Stephen Page, 2015). Photographer: Jacob Nash. NFSA title: 1463770