''First Australians'' is a seven-part Australian historical

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

TV series produced by

Blackfella Films Blackfella Films is an Australian documentary and narrative film production company headquartered in Sydney, founded in 1992 by Rachel Perkins. The company produces Australian short and feature-length content for film and television with a part ...

over the course of six years, and first aired on

SBS TV SBS TV (Seoul Broadcasting System Television) is a South Korean free-to-air television channel operated by Seoul Broadcasting System. The channel was launched on 9 December 1991. Unlike competing network MBC, SBS operates using a federalized ...

in October 2008. A book was published to accompany the series.

Synopsis

The series chronicles the history of contemporary Australia, from the perspective of its first people,

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

and

Torres Strait Islander people Torres may refer to: People *Torres (surname) Torres (sometimes Torrez or Torrès) is a surname in the Catalan language, Catalan, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Spanish language, Spanish languages, meaning "towers". History A surname der ...

. The series is essentially a synthesis of well-documented historical information. It relies heavily on archival documents and interpretations from historians and members of both the Aboriginal and

European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

community and leaders. It tries to tell the story of Australian history from a contemporary Indigenous point of view. The story begins in 1788 in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, with the arrival of the

First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...

and ends in 1993 with Koiki Mabo's legal challenge to the foundation of Australia. The series comprises seven episodes in which it explores what unfolded when the oldest living culture in the world was confronted by the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

.Unearthing our first voices
''The Canberra Times'', 14 October 2008 It explores the lives of particular individuals and uses their stories as a vehicle to explain the larger situations of the time. It explains violent aspects of European settlement of Australia, such as killings, battles, wars, as well as acts of friendship and decency between the early European settlers and Aboriginal Australians. Aboriginal Australian history has until recently been clouded by the "great Australian silence", referring to ignorance of the real history of Australia seen as a way for non-Aboriginal Australians to hide shame for their own history. The series was the winner of multiple awards, remains the highest-selling educational title in Australia , and was also sold overseas.

Episodes

A total of seven episodes were filmed. The series was first transmitted in Australia from 12 October to 2 November 2008.

Production

The general manager of SBS, Nigel Milan, had asked Indigenous historian and academic

Gordon Briscoe Gordon Briscoe AO (1938 – 30 June 2023) was an Aboriginal Australian academic and activist. In 1997, he was awarded a PhD from the Australian National University. He was also a soccer player. Early life Born in Alice Springs, Northern Terr ...

what he could do for Indigenous people, and Briscoe suggested giving them back their history. It was a very ambitious project, and

Rachel Perkins Rachel Perkins (born 1970) is an Indigenous Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She founded and was co-director of the independent film production company Blackfella Films from 1992 until 2022. Perkins and the ...

(creator, director, and producer, and daughter of Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins,) said that it was the most important thing she would ever work on, "because it really was an opportunity to try and tell the Indigenous story in a comprehensive manner from an Indigenous perspective, over a span of 200 years. It had never been done before". There were seven episodes, each 60 minutes long, in the series. Episode writing and directing credits included

Beck Cole Beck Cole is an Australian filmmaker of the Warramungu and Luritja nations. She is known for her work on numerous TV series, including ''First Australians'', ''Grace Beside Me'', ''Black Comedy'' and '' Wentworth'', as well as documentaries a ...

and

Louis Nowra Mark Doyle, better known by his stage name Louis Nowra, (born 12 December 1950) is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist. He is best known as one of Australia's leading playwrights. His works have been performed by all o ...

. The series was produced by Perkins and

Darren Dale Darren Dale is an Indigenous Australian film and television producer. He joined film production company Blackfella Films as a producer and later co-director (with founder Rachel Perkins), and is managing director. Dale is known for co-producin ...

. The series received funding from the

Australian Film Commission The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was an Australian government agency was founded in 1975 with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a product ...

and the

Film Finance Corporation The Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) was the government agency responsible for funding commercial productions of Australian film, documentary, and television from 1988 to 2008. Unlike other publicly funded organisations responsible for f ...

. The series featured writer

Bruce Pascoe Bruce Pascoe (born 1947) is an Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. As well as his own name, Pascoe has written under the pen names Murray Gray and Leopold Glass. Pascoe identifies as Abor ...

and historians

Marcia Langton Marcia Lynne Langton (born 31 October 1951) is an Aboriginal Australian writer and academic. she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Langton is an acti ...

Janet McCalman Janet Susan McCalman, (born 5 December 1948) is an Australian social historian, population researcher and author at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. McCalman won the Ernest Scott Prize in 1985 and 2 ...

, and

. A significant part of the production of the series involved consultation with the descendants of the individuals portrayed in the documentary. This involved checking the content of scripts, usually face to face, seeking permission to film in particular locations, showing the

rough cut In filmmaking, the rough cut (also known as the first cut or editor's cut) is the second of three stages of offline editing. The term originates from the early days of filmmaking when film stock was physically cut and reassembled, but is still ...

of the film for comment and showing the film at fine cut. The series was made in accordance with

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Indigenous intellectual property is a term used in national and international forums to describe intellectual property held to be collectively owned by various Indigenous peoples, and by extension, their legal rights to protect specific such pro ...

rights, to ensure the cultural content and the rights of Indigenous people. Permission was gained from 200–300 people to publish the stories, photographs, and other material used in the series.

Broadcast

The series was first broadcast on SBS Television in October to November 2008.

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' described the series as "the documentary of the decade".

Awards and nominations

*2009:

AFI Award The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...

: Best Documentary Series for

, Helen Panckhurst – Won *2009:

Logie Award The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Television in Australia, Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The eve ...

: Outstanding Documentary or Documentary Series – Won *2009:

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

Script Writing Award for

– Won *2009: Australian Directors' Guild Awards: Outstanding Direction for a Television Documentary – Series – (Freedom for Our Lifetime) for

– Won *2009:

Australian Writers' Guild The Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) is the professional association for Australian performance writers for film, television, radio, theatre, video, and new media. The AWG was established in 1962, and has conferred the AWGIE Awards since 1968, ...

Award: Outstanding Writing in a Documentary (Episode 1) for

– Won *2009:

Award: Outstanding Writing in a Documentary (Episode 3) for

– Nominated *2009:

Deadly Awards The Deadly Awards, formally titled National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Arts and Community Awards and commonly known simply as The Deadlys, was an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander a ...

: Outstanding Achievement in Film –

– Nominated

Book

A book entitled ''First Australians: An Illustrated History'' was published by

Miegunyah Press Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) is the book publishing arm of the University of Melbourne. The press is currently a member of the Association of University Presses. History MUP was founded in 1922 as Melbourne University Press to sell text ...

in 2008 to accompany the series, edited by Rachel Perkins and Marcia Langton.

References

External links

* * on SBS on Demand
''First Australians''
on

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

''First Australians'' launch
on the

Minister for Indigenous Affairs The Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Government of Australia is a position which holds responsibility for affairs affecting Indigenous Australians. Previous ministers have held various other titles since the position was created in 196 ...

website {{Films and television series about Aboriginal Australia 2000s Australian documentary television series Special Broadcasting Service original programming Television shows set in New South Wales Documentary films about Aboriginal Australians 2008 Australian television series debuts Indigenous Australian television series