NAIDOC Week is celebrated every July and this year’s theme is 'Spirit of the Tent Embassy: 40 years on’.

Liz McNiven’s A Short History of Indigenous Filmmaking touches on the role of activist filmmakers in capturing and sharing this spirit:

'In 1972, Aboriginal people took their struggle to the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra and, via television and radio coverage, to the world … The film [Ningla A-Na] highlighted to an international audience the Aboriginal struggle for land rights.’

She traces the beginnings of Aboriginal self-representation on film in the early 1970s through to the leading Indigenous filmmakers of today, including Wayne Blair (director of The Sapphires, opening nationally in August) and Rachel Perkins (whose Mabo screened at the Sydney Film Festival and on ABC1 in June).

Read Liz McNiven’s A Short History of Indigenous Filmmaking.

Watch interviews with Wayne Blair and Rachel Perkins on ASO.

The NFSA’s Black Screen Program can supply DVDs free to your community organisation for NAIDOC Week celebrations. To apply, see the NFSA Black Screen page.

Learn more about NAIDOC Week at the official website.