Santilla Chingaipe
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Santilla Chingaipe is a Zambian-born Australian award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker. Her documentaries include ''Third Culture Kids'' and ''Our African Roots'', among others. She has been a guest on '' Tomorrow Tonight'' and '' Q&A''.


Background

Chingaipe is an African Australian who migrated to Australia at the age of 10. She currently lives in the Victorian city of
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
. Her film-making efforts include the documentary ''Our African Roots''.''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', September 24, 2021
Australia’s first bushranger - he may not be who you think By Carolyn Webb
/ref> The documentary, which she produced with director Tony Jackson was an MIPCOM Diversify TV Award winner in 2022. In addition to being a film maker and author, she has been a full-time journalist for SBS Television. She spent ten years with SBS. During that time she reported from various locations in the African continent where she interviewed some the most prominent African leaders.AIDC, 2023
SANTILLA CHINGAIPE (AUSTRALIA) JOURNALIST & FILMMAKER INDEPENDENT
/ref> She eventually left her job with SBS to concentrate full time on film making. In addition to English, she speaks
Bemba Bemba may refer to: Languages and ethnic groups * Bemba language, or Chibemba, a Bantu language spoken in Zambia * Bemba people, or AbaBemba, of Zambia * Bemba, a dialect of the Buyu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo People * Jea ...
,
Nyanja Chewa ( ; also known as Nyanja ) is a Bantu language spoken in Malawi and a recognised minority in Zambia and Mozambique. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for languages, so the language is often called or Chinyanja. In Malawi, the name wa ...
and
Namwanga Mwanga, or Namwanga (Nyamwanga), is a Bantu language spoken by the Mwanga people in the Muchinga Province of Zambia (mainly in the districts of Isoka and Nakonde) and in Mbeya Region, Tanzania. The 2010 Zambian census found 140,000 speakers. The ...
, which are all Zambian languages. She can also speak some
Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...
. She has had recognition at the Victorian African Community Awards and the Celebration of African Australians Awards. She is also a four-time finalist for the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Awards. She has written for ''
The Saturday Paper ''The Saturday Paper'' is an Australian weekly newspaper, launched on 1 March 2014 in hard copy, as an online newspaper and in mobile news format. The paper is circulated throughout Australian capital cities and major regional centres. Since i ...
''. Her articles include "The rise of far-right Hindu nationalism in Australia" (August 20, 2022), "Farm activists face tougher laws" (July 27, 2019), "Black Rhinos teams lift a community" (February 18, 2023). She founded the annual program, Behind the Screens. Supported by
VicScreen VicScreen, formerly known as Film Victoria, is the Victoria State Government's creative and economic screen development agency. It supports screen industry professionals, infrastructure, projects and events, promoting the state of Victoria as a ...
this program operates with a view to increasing the representation of those people who haven't been included in the Australian film industry in the past.


Film career

Chingaipe wrote and directed the 2017 documentary short ''Black as Me''. She directed ''Third Culture Kids'', an Arenamedia production. It is a documentary about six Australian artists from different backgrounds. It was produced by Kate Laurie and Chloe Brugale with Robert Connolly as the executive producer. It looks at things from their perspective such as what it means to belong, representation, racism and identity. During the pandemic, she made ''The Dancer'', a short documentary that featured performance artist Zelia Rose. Chingaipe's film ''Our African Roots'' premiered on SBS television in October 2021. The film looks at a forgotten and neglected part of Australian history. There were 10 convicts of African heritage among the 1788 arrivals. Among the names of the forgotten and overlooked were John Randall,
Billy Blue William Blue (c. 1767 – 7 May 1834) was an Australian convict who, after completing his sentence, became a boatman providing one of the first services to take people across Sydney Harbour. He was also made a water bailiff and watched boat ...
, John Martin, Fanny Finch, and John Joseph. In her investigations, Chingaipe talks with descendants of Fanny Finch in Castlemaine. What comes to light is the involvement of Fanny in the history of Victoria's gold rush era and her role in the right for women to vote.


Written work


Books

Her non-fiction book '' Black Convicts'' was published by Scribner Australia in 2024. According to the
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...
website, quoting Scribner Australia's publisher Ben Ball: "Santilla peels off another layer of the whitewashing of our history." It was shortlisted for the 2025
Stella Prize The Stella Prize is an Australian annual literary award established in 2013 for writing by Australian women in all genres, worth $50,000. It was originally proposed by Australian women writers and publishers in 2011, modelled on the UK's Bailey ...
.


Appearances

* '' Tomorrow Tonight'', Episode 5 "The App", aired 28 November 2018. * '' Q&A'', Episode: The Ethics of Accountability, broadcast Thu 8 July 2021. * ''Q&A'', Episode: "Power, Politics, and the Spectre of War", broadcast Thu 17 November 2022."Power, Politics, and the Spectre of War, Panelists"
ABC, 17 November 2022.


Further reading

* Santilla Chingaipe
"We must be aware of who is excluded from Australia's recorded history – and who excluded them"
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 4 October 2024.


References


External links


IMDb: Santilla Chingaipe

Instagram: Santilla Chingaipe (santigrams)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chingaipe, Santilla Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Australian filmmakers Australian journalists Australian women journalists Australian people of African-American descent