''Thalu'' is an Australian children's

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

sci-fi drama television series made for

National Indigenous Television National Indigenous Television (NITV) is an Australian free-to-air television channel that broadcasts programming produced and presented largely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It includes the six-day-a-week ''NITV News Updat ...

(NITV) and

ABC Me ABC Entertains is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched on 4 December 2009 as a children's channel called ABC3. It was rebranded on 19 September 2016 to ABC ME. It rebra ...

, broadcast in April 2020. All cast members are

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

, and the children are first-time actors. There are guest appearances by seasoned actors

Elaine Crombie Elaine Crombie is an Aboriginal Australian actress, known for her work on stage and television. She is also a singer, songwriter, comedian, writer and producer. Early life and education Crombie is a Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara woman from ...

Trisha Morton-Thomas Patricia Morton-Thomas, usually credited as Trisha Morton-Thomas, is an Australian writer, producer, director, and actor. Her first role in a feature film was in ''Radiance'' (1998), the first feature film by director Rachel Perkins. Morton-Th ...

, and Hunter Page-Lochard. It was filmed in the Pilbara region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Synopsis

The ten-part series focuses on a group of Indigenous children who undertake a journey to save their country from the threat of a mysterious dust cloud and its inhabitants, the Takers. The group have to travel to the powerful location of Thalu, collecting eight sacred stones and a key and meeting friends and enemies along the way. Page-Lochard described it as "its own little Dreaming, its own little spirit world where Indigenous people inhabit, and there's folklore characters and characters with different stories that reflect the land and the world that they come from".

Cast

* Logan Adams as Noodles * Cherry-Rose Hubert as Em * Jakeile Coffin as Keile * Sharliya Mowarin as Kali * Ella Togo as Samara * Wade Walker as Hudson * Penny Wally as Vinka

Guests

as Bits and Bobs, an eccentric pedlar * Trevor Ryan as Jack in a Box * Gabriel Willie as Man up a Tree * Tootsie Daniel, Allery Sandy, Jean Churnside, Judith Coppin, Pansy Hicks, Pansy Sambo, Violet Samson as The Nannas *

as The Principal * Aaron McGrath as Random Dan * Wendyl Alex as Big Joey * Ashton Munda as Traditional Man *

Trevor Jamieson Trevor Jamieson (born 7 March 1975) is an Aboriginal Australian stage and film actor, playwright, dancer, singer and didgeridoo player. Early life Trevor Jamieson was born on 7 March 1975 in Subiaco, Western Australia (WA). He grew up in th ...

as The Shadow Boxer * Derik Lynch as The Trainer * Maverick Eaton, Sidney Eaton, Fabian Togo, Tiras Walker as Boxers * Hunter Page-Lochard as The Trapper * Dave Johnson as The Nhuka * Della Rae Morrison as Aunty * Tameeka Rassip-Andrews as Other Gang Girl * Zack Levi as Other Gang Boy * Leon Burchill, Billy McPherson as The Brothers

Production

The series was co-commissioned by NITV and ABC Children's (a partnership previously exercised for ''

Little J & Big Cuz ''Little J & Big Cuz'' is an Australian animated television series first screened on the NITV network in 2017. The 13-part series is directed by Tony Thorne and produced by Ned Lander and developed with the Australian Council for Educational Re ...

'' and ''

Grace Beside Me ''Grace Beside Me'' is an Australian fantasy drama television series for children which premiered on NITV on 16 February 2018 and later aired on ABC Me. The series is based on the novel ''Grace Beside Me'', by Sue McPherson, and was filmed in ...

''), with principal funding from

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in association with

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and the Western Australian Regional Film Fund, and with support from NITV, ABC, and the

Australian Children's Television Foundation The Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF) is a national non-profit children's media production and policy hub. The ACTF helps develop children's television policy; distributes and pays for Australian children's television series; s ...

(ACTF). The working title of the project was ''Neomad'', with the initial intention of basing the story on the interactive Aboriginal

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

and three-part series of that name set in

Murujuga The Burrup Peninsula, previously known as Dampier Island, is a former island of the Dampier Archipelago that is now connected to the mainland via a causeway. The peninsula and islands together are also known as Murujuga. The peninsula is locat ...

(Burrup Peninsula). ''Thalu'' is the

Ngarluma The Ngarluma are an Indigenous Australian people of the western Pilbara area of northwest Australia. They are coastal dwellers of the area around Roebourne and Karratha, excluding Millstream. Language The Ngarluma language belongs to the Ngay ...

word for "

totem A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While the word ...

", and is used to refers to

ceremonial A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil (secular) ceremoni ...

sites, often important for the regeneration of key species. The series was filmed in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

region of

and the cast are from Roebourne (known as Ieramugadu to the local people). Each character has been written with input from the young cast member to reflect their personality, sense of humour and culture.

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 Sam Paynter workshopped ideas with the local elders and young people to produce ideas for the storyline, starting in 2018. There was a great deal of community collaboration on the project, which was described as "an unprecedented, top-to-bottom model for community consultation". The elders who consulted on the series appear as The Nannas in the series. Words from the local language,

, are used in the script. ''Thalu'' was directed by Amie Batalibasi, Dena Curtis (producer, writer and director, including directing ''

8MMM Aboriginal Radio ''8MMM Aboriginal Radio'' (''8MMM''), pronounced "8 Triple M", is a 2015 Australian television comedy series. Synopsis The six-part series is set in a remote radio station whose Aboriginal crew air the day-to-day preoccupations of Alice Spring ...

''),

artist Tyson Mowarin, and Hunter Page-Lochard, and created for

(NITV) and

. Writers included

Nayuka Gorrie Nayuka Gorrie (born 1990), formerly Natalie Gorrie, is an Australian writer, actor, and screenwriter. They are known for writing and performing in the third and fourth seasons of ''Black Comedy'', for exploring their Black queer identity, femin ...

, Sam Paynter, David Woodhead, and Donald Imberlong. Shooting took eight weeks, done entirely on location in the Pilbara. The show was produced by Tyson Mowarin and Robyn Marais from Weerianna Street Media, in association with the ACTF. Mark O'Toole, who has been head writer and producer on series such as '' Spicks and Specks'', ''

Black Comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

'', and children's comedy program ''

You're Skitting Me ''You're Skitting Me'' is an Australian children's sketch comedy series that began airing on 29 February 2012 on ABC3. The cast consists of six teen actors who make up the main cast, as well as another six teens who make up the additional cast ...

'' was executive producer, and helped to develop the storyline. The series music was composed by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan.

Broadcast

''Thalu'' premiered on 20 April 2020 on NITV, and was made available on SBS on Demand as well as

ABC iview ABC iview is a video on demand and catch-up TV service run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Currently iview video content can only be viewed by users in Australia. As of 2016, ABC iview attracts around 50 million plays monthly and a ...

Accolades

In February 2020, ''Thalu'' was nominated in the

Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing or ''silkscreening'', a printing method * Big screen, a nickname for motion pictures * Split screen (filmmaking), showing two or more images side by side * Stochastic screening and Halftone ...

(SDIN) Awards, but lost out to

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 ...

' documentary film ''

Maralinga Tjarutja The Maralinga Tjarutja, or Maralinga Tjarutja Council, is the corporation representing the traditional Anangu owners of the remote western areas of South Australia known as the Maralinga Tjarutja lands. The council was established by the ''Mara ...

'', directed by

Larissa Behrendt Larissa Yasmin Behrendt (born 1969) is an Australian legal academic, writer, filmmaker and Indigenous rights advocate. she is a professor of law and director of research and academic programs at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education ...

, when the awards were announced a year later. On 1 December 2020, Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan won the

APRA AMCOS APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

Australian Guild of Screen Composers The Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) is a not for profit organisation, which was established in 1981, "to represent the interests of Australian screen composers by developing and promoting employment opportunities, undertaking educationa ...

award for Best Music for Children's Television in the Screen Music Awards.

''Thalu: Dreamtime Is Now''

In 2018,

artist Tyson Mowarin wrote and directed an 18-minute VR experience called ''Thalu: Dreamtime Is Now''. The story involved a spirit guide called Jirri Jirri, who introduces some of the spirits and traditional custodians according to the Dreaming stories of the Ngarluma people. ''Thalu: Dreamtime Is Now'', was shortlisted in the Best Digital Product category in the 2019 First Nations Media Awards.

References

External links

* {{Films and television series about Indigenous Australia APRA Award winners National Indigenous Television original programming Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming 2020 Australian television series debuts Australian children's fantasy television series Australian fantasy drama television series Australian English-language television shows Television shows set in Western Australia 2020s Australian drama television series Pilbara