NAIDOC (National Aboriginies and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Week 2013 runs from 7-14 July. This year’s theme marks 50 years since the Yolngu people of Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land sent bark petitions to federal parliament.
Our homepage features films made in Arnhem Land, including the award-winning Ten Canoes (2006) and Yolngu Boy (2000).
In August 1963, the Yolngu people were protesting the Commonwealth Government’s granting of mining leases in Yirrkala. The bark petitions were framed by ochre paintings of clan designs, making them the first traditional Indigenous Australian documents recognised by federal parliament.
The NFSA’s Black Screen Program supplies DVDs of contemporary Indigenous Australian films for screening by community organisations, and these are especially popular for NAIDOC Week celebrations. For more information, see the NFSA Black Screen page.
The NFSA has also made available a selection of titles from the Black Screen program for on-demand viewing at the Australian Mediatheque, in Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image.
More information
- 2013 National NAIDOC Week Theme
- Bark petitions: Indigenous art and reform for the rights of Indigenous Australians
Picture (above left): Members of a theatre troupe from Yirrkala, Arnhem Land who played an Aboriginal tribe in Skippy – Be Our Guest (1968).
