#AlwaysWillBe: films celebrating strength and survival on NITV

In the lead up to 26 January, NITV is playing the best Indigenous films and television series including Sweet Country, which will have its television premiere.

Warwick Thornton's 'Sweet Country' starring Hamtilton Morris, Bryan Brown and Sam Neill will kick off the Winda festival program. Source: Bunya Productions

NITV is inviting all Australians to hear stories of our nation's shared history from an Indigenous perspective.

Come and explore what 26 January means to Indigenous people, through a curated slate of distinctive programming. 

Collectively housed under our #AlwaysWillBe special programming, stories of strength, resilience and survival, from across the country are coming to Channel 34.

Songlines (Season 2) - Daily, 7pm

Songlines Yarripirri's Journey Source: Supplied

Songlines Season Two brings a collection of six documentaries from some of Australia’s greatest and oldest storytellers. Each documentary presents an Indigenous Songline story.

Community and elders share their rich accounts of dreaming, serving as a reminder of the ancient roots of our country and the enduring power of its original people.

Songlines presents a chance to understand and celebrate our rare and precious heritage.

Songlines airs 7pm, daily from Sunday, 20 January until Friday, 25 January on NITV (Ch. 34). And will be repeated throughout the day, Saturday, 26 January.

Black Comedy (Season 2) - From Monday 21 January, 7.30pm

Black Comedy Season 2. (Bronwyn Rennex) Source: Supplied

Black Comedy is a fast-paced, irreverent, entertaining, thought-provoking— at times silly —at other times confronting, but always funny look at Australian culture through the comedic prism of our First People.

Double episodes from Monday 21 January to Wednesday 23 January at 7.30pm on NITV (Ch. 34).

Teach a Man to Fish - Monday 21 January, 8.30pm

Grant and his father, Ray fishing in Manning River Source: Supplied

Filmmaker Grant Saunders grew up with dreams of being a fisherman, just like his father Ray and his grandfather

Horry before him.

When Grant's uncle Steve, his father’s main fishing partner, decides to quit fishing, Grant takes the opportunity to go fishing with his father and learn the trade. It's an opportunity for him to not only connect with his family legacy, but emotionally, spend time with his father Ray and salvage a relationship somewhat spoiled some time ago.

Connection to Country - Monday 21 January 11.35pm

Connection to Country Source: NITV

Connection to Country follows the Indigenous people of the Western Australian Pilbara’s battle to preserve Australia's 50,000-year-old cultural heritage from the ravages of a booming mining industry.

The Pilbara region sits in the Burrup Peninsula (or Murujuga) and is host to the largest concentration of rock art in the world, dating back over 50,000 years.

Connection to Country will repeat on Saturday 26 January at 10am on NITV (Ch. 34).

Wik Vs Queensland - Tuesday 22 January, 8.30pm

Marcia Langton, one of the interviewees from the documentary, Wik vs. Queensland. Source: BENT3LAND PRODUCTIONS

In 1996 The High Court of Australia granted native title co-existence rights to the Wik Peoples of Cape York. The “Wik Decision” should have been a catalyst for positive change, but instead sparked a national, cultural and political fallout.

With unique access to never-before screened footage of a young Noel Pearson and Marcia Langton, this uncompromising feature documentary forensically explores the racism, fearmongering and political maneuvering that occurred in the lead up to the case, and its aftermath.

Told from the very personal Wik Peoples' perspective, Wik vs Queensland causes us to question who we are as a nation today.

Another Country - Tuesday 22 January, 10pm

Source: SBS Movies

Narrated by David Gulpilil, Another Country is about his home Ramingining, a remote Indigenous community in North-East Arnhem Land.

But, in many ways, as the title suggests, it is ‘another country’. This award-winning 2006 film looks at Indigenous life before the arrival of white settlers.

This groundbreaking piece of cinema was the first film shot only in an Indigenous Australian language.

The Point (Returns) - Wednesday 23 January, 8.30pm

The Point. Rachel and JP. (Ryan Stuart) Source: Ryan Stuart

NITV’s flagship news and current affairs program, The Point returns in 2019, again hosted by Rachael Hocking and John-Paul Janke.

The first episode of the year will be a special episode called iProtest, and will take an in-depth look at historic reactions to Indigenous protests and news coverage from the last three years surrounding the ‘Change the Date’ movement.

We Don't Need a Map - Wednesday 23 January, 9.30pm

Warwick Thornton, in his documentary ‘We Don’t Need A Map’. Source: Supplied

Feature-length documentary, We Don't Need a Map explores Australia’s complex relationship with the Southern Cross. It is the most famous constellation in the southern hemisphere and ever since colonisation, it’s been claimed, appropriated and hotly-contested for ownership by a radical range of Australian groups.

But for Aboriginal people, the meaning of this heavenly body is deeply spiritual, and just about completely unknown. Warwick Thornton, one of Australia’s leading filmmakers, tackles this fiery subject head-on in a bold, provocative and poetic essay-film.

Samson and Delilah - Wednesday 23 January, 11pm

Samson and Delilah, 2009, Warwick Thornton, feature. Source: AAP Images

Samson and Delilah live in an isolated world— a remote Aboriginal community in the Australian desert. In a tiny collection of houses, everything here happens in a cycle. Day in and day out, nothing changes, and no one seems to care.

From director Warwick Thornton, Samson and Delilah is a journey of survival. When tragedy strikes Delilah, the most unlikely Samson comes to her rescue. The two fall in love despite the cruelty of their current life circumstances, and their love becomes all they have.

Occupation: Native - Thursday 24 January, 7.30pm

Looking for answers about Australia’s black past, Trisha along with actor Steven Oliver show a satirical recount of our untold history Source: NITV News

Filmmaker Trisha Morton-Thomas dishes up a fresh look at our colonial past. Exploring everything they never taught you at school, but should have.

It’s Australian history, but not like you have you ever seen or heard before. Trisha decides it’s time to go looking for answers, and along with actor Steven Oliver and several historians the film is a satirical recount of our untold

history.

Occupation: Native will repeat on Saturday 26 January, 8.30pm on NITV (Ch. 34).

Servant or Slave - Thursday 24 January, 8.30pm

LeQuelah Roberts Carr and Honey Boyd in Servant or Slave Source: No Coincidence Media

Servant or Slave follows the real lives of five Aboriginal women who were stolen from their families and trained to be domestic servants.

With the government exercising complete control over their wages, many thousands of Aboriginal girls and boys were effectively condemned to a treadmill of abuse from which there was little hope of escape.

Radiance - Thursday 24 January, 9.30pm

Radiance. (Eclipse Films) Source: NITV

Radiance tells the story of three young women, who return home for their mother’s funeral and in the space of twenty-four hours, begin to unravel their somewhat complicated past.

The oldest, Cressy is now a successful opera singer, Mae is a nurse and the youngest Nona, is the life of the

party. 

Radiance is directed by celebrated filmmaker Rachel Perkins and stars Deborah Mailman, Trisha Morton-Thomas and Rachael Maza.

Jasper Jones - Friday 25 January, 7.30pm

Source: SBS On Demand

Adapted from Craig Silvey’s best-selling Australian novel, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Rachel Perkins, Jasper Jones features a stellar cast including Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Levi Miller, Angourie Rice, Dan Wyllie and Aaron McGrath.

The narrative follows Charlie Bucktin, a 14-year-old boy living in a small town in Western Australia.

In the dead of night during the scorching summer of 1969, Charlie is startled when he is woken by outcast, Jasper Jones outside his window. Jasper leads him deep into the forest and shows him something that will change his life forever, settling them both on a dangerous journey to solve a mystery that will consume the entire community.

The Song Keepers - Friday 25 January, 9.15pm

Song keepers of the central desert Source: Supplied by NITV

In the unique churches of remote Central Australia, a 140-year musical legacy of ancient Aboriginal languages, German sacred poetry and baroque music is being preserved by four generations of song women.

Written and directed by Naina Sen, The Song Keepers tells the unknown story of the choral heritage of remote Aboriginal communities in Central Australia past and present, through the women that make up the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir.

Their music is the perfect manifestation of how they hold their strong tradition, culture and modern faith in perfect balance, unabashedly and unapologetically.

Sunrise Ceremony - Saturday 26 January, 7am

Sunrise Ceremony 2019 Source: Supplied

This years' Survival Day, the nation will be invited to tune in and experience unique Indigenous perspectives, cultural performances and entertainment all encapsulated in NITV’s Sunrise Ceremony— a two-hour television program designed to bring people together.

The Sunrise Ceremony will be hosted by John Paul Janke, with panelists Michael Anderson, Aunty Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, Teela Reid and Bianca Hunt.

Cultural performances and live entertainment will be presented by Shellie Morris, Djakapurra Munyarryun, Dhapanbal Yunupingu, Arian Pearson, Mim Kwanten and the Muggera Dancers.

88 - Saturday 26 January, 6.30pm

88 Source: Supplied

Directed by Adrian Russell Wills, 88 explores the remarkable and controversial events of Australia's Bicentennary.

On 26 January 1988 over 2.5 million people lined Sydney Harbour to be part of the celebrations commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet in New South Wales; the beginning of European settlement in Australia.

As the First Fleet reenactment sailed through the heads, thousands of Aboriginal people from all over the country made their presence known with the March for “Freedom, Justice and Hope”. It was the largest march in Sydney since the Vietnam moratorium.

The march was a statement of survival and the exclusion of an Aboriginal voice in Australian history, aiming to draw national and international attention to Australia’s poor human rights record.

NITV News Day 26 - Live from Yabun - Saturday 26 January, 7.30pm

NITV News Logo Source: NITV

NITV News will broadcat live from the 2019 Yabun Festival in the Sydney suburb of Redfern.

Crossing live to our reporters and correspondents from around the nation as we take a look at what made news across Australia on this year's 26 January.

Hosted by NITV's Natalie Ahmat and Karla Grant.

Sweet Country - Saturday 26 January, 9.30pm

Sweet Country (Transmission Films) Source: SBS Distribution

Based on a true story, Sweet Country follows an Indigenous farm hand Sam Kelly (played by AACTA award-winner Hamilton Morris) and his wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey Furber) who become embroiled in a white pastoralist’s (Ewen Leslie) quest to punish an Indigenous boy (played by twins, Tremayne and Trevon Doolan) for an alleged crime.

Sweet Country will have its television premiere on Saturday 26 January, 9.30pm on NITV (Ch. 34).

Rabbit Proof Fence - Saturday 26 January, 11.30pm

Rabbit-Proof Fence Source: Supplied

The sad story of the Stolen Generations is played out in this true story about three Aboriginal girls who are taken from their home and separated from their mothers.

They are sent to a remote settlement 1,500 miles away. In response, they attempt the impossible and embark on a daring escape and epic journey to find their way back home— across an unforgiving landscape that will test their very will to survive.

The multi award-winning Australian drama Rabbit-Proof Fence is based on the book, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara, about Garimara's mother Molly's story. 

 

Join NITV for a week of programming which showcases the strength, courage and resilience of our people. #AlwaysWillBe starts Sunday, 20 January on NITV (Ch. 34)