30 June 2005
An indigenous short film festival highlights celebrations during NAIDOC Week at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra this year.
The five films include a 24-minute documentary, Our Community, part of the Museum's photographic exhibition Our Community - A Great Place to Be! which explores the cultural and social diversity of communities in the north-west of New South Wales.
The other films are Yellow Fella, an official selection of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival; The Djarn Djarns and Green Bush, award winners at this year's Berlin International Film Festival and Prejudice, shown at Tropfest 2005. Prejudice scriptwriter Nathan Ramsay will be a special guest at the festival, to be screened in the Museum's Visions Theatre from 7pm, Wednesday, 6 July.
Other highlights from 3 to 10 July include:
- NAIDOC activities on the Peninsula, Tuesday, 5 July. The Museum joins the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in an Open Day on Acton Peninsula. The Museum will run family activities in the Hall, dance demonstrations, and tours of the Gallery of First Australians. AIATSIS will offer a photo exhibition of indigenous sporting history, films, tours, a lunchtime forum, a book sale and bush tucker.
- Traditional storytelling every day from 11am in the Museum's Story Place. Stories will be told by Wiradjuri, Kabi Kabi, and Kamileroi people from NSW.
- Emu storytelling and a Corroboree workshop for kids with Wiradjuri woman Helen Moran. Kids will make their own emu caller, paint clapsticks, and prepare for a corroboree. Wednesday, 6 July. Booked out.
- Dancing with Corroboree Man Phillip Yubbagurri Brown and didgeridoo player Norman Shillingsworth. Thursday, 7 July and didgeridoo playing by Duncan Smith, Friday 8 July.
- Koori Love with music from Wiradjuri man Johnny Huckle. Saturday, 9 July. Bookings essential.
The Museum's celebrations conclude on Sunday, 10 July when Arrente man and country music singer Warren H Williams performs in the Hall.
This will be followed by the final forum linked to the Museum exhibition Extremes: Survival in the Great Deserts of the Southern Hemisphere. Warren H Williams joins composer Andrew Schultz, singer-songwriter Shane Howard and librettist Gordon K Williams in a discussion about how desert landscapes have inspired indigenous and non-indigenous musicians. ABC Classic FM presenter and composer Vincent Plush will chair the forum. Singing the Desert takes place in the Studio from 2pm on Sunday, 10 July.
For more information including a detailed NAIDOC Week program, please contact Sandy Forbes on 02 6208 5351, 0409 916 481 or Leanda Coleman on 02 6208 5338, 0438 620 710 or email media@nma.gov.au