Curtis Marriott
G’day I’m Curtis Marriott, and I work for an organisation called The Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association or other wise known as CAAMA.
In 1980 CAAMA was established with the aim to preserve and record, the Indigenous culture that was being lost through constant interaction with mainstream Australia. It was also established to provide Aboriginal people with a strong voice through media broadcast whether by radio, television or film.
An offshoot was to also provide wider Australia with intimate knowledge of Aboriginal culture to help bring about co-operation, understanding and common goals.
CAAMA started with the aim to train Aboriginal people in filmmaking and provide a platform for up coming filmmakers, to learn their craft and develop their skill.
Over the years CAAMA has produced some of Australia’s leading Aboriginal Filmmaker’s like:
Alan Collins
Steven McGregor
Warwick Thornton
Danielle MacLean
and Rachel Perkins just to name a few.
CAAMA continues to produce quality ground breaking programs, with the recent production of the Aboriginal Kids Drama called DOUBLE TROUBLE.
Double Trouble is a 13 part series about twin girls that are serapted at birth. One twin is taken to a metropolitan city to live with her father, while the other twin stays on the Aboriginal community to be raised by her mother. A chance meeting when the girls are teenagers enables them to change places and lives.
The NGANAMPA ANWERNEKENHE Cultural series is a documentary program/series that allows the Aboriginal people to voice their opinions on issues that are sometimes one sided.
CAAMA also have ownership in an Indigenous television station IMPARJA. IMPARJA’s broadcast footprint is the largest in Australia, but is focused mainly in remote communities in outback Australia.
Like CAAMA, IMPARJA was set up with the same ideals, to help indigenous Australians have an immediate outlet to broadcast Indigenous content documentaries that may not fit commercial station guidelines.
The roads paved by CAAMA have lead to the establishment of a new Indigenous Television Network called NITV. NITV is in its infant stages however programming has set standards that ensure 100\% Indigenous content. Thus providing CAAMA and other emerging Indigenous Film Production organisations a totally Indigenous television network to broadcast their product.
The three films’ you will see at this festival all have a common theme, culture, journey and struggle.
Walking, Dancing, Belonging is what we would know as a woman’s story.
In aboriginal Australia there are certain things women are allow to know and certain things men are allow to know, in this day an age the generational gap in increasing every day due to social dysfunction in the wide community’s, so this is leaving no choice and some story’s are viewed by both sides.
Aboriginal people to sometimes to blur the lines in order to preserve the culture.
On the other hand SUNSET TO SUNRISE, is mainly a men’s story, the old man that features in the film, talks about the culture, about what land is and what is means, he passes this on to the young men, but then he drifts off.
Some people think that what he said is a bit harsh, but I think that sometimes it’s best to be cruel to be kind.
That ultimately it’s up to the indigenous people of Australia to take matters in there own hands and rise above the situation we face.
YELLOW YELLA, to me is ground breaking, it tackles what a half cast child or man goes through their entire life, not black, nor white, but yellow.
I could relate to his film, like many aboriginal people of Australia, many of us don’t know our history, black heritage or family; we never really get accepted by either side.
YELLOW YELLA is a journey of one-man quest for his belonging, a quest for the truth, this is a emotional rollercoaster with no real conclusion, which is not uncommon for many aboriginal people.
But there is one thing you should take from these films is this, no how much land you take from us, no matter what religion you force upon us, no matter were we are in the world, our culture lives inside us.
Weather you live in the city or live in the bush, your culture will always be apart of you, apart of your being.
Hope you enjoy the films, thank you.