In celebration of National Youth Week, SBS teamed up with the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) and Department of Social Services (DSS) to give young people the chance to share their story on national television. 15- to 24-year olds across the country were invited to submit a video entry about their unique identity. After several rounds of judging, five winners were chosen to attend a week-long filmmaking and storytelling workshop in Melbourne with FYA. At the end of the workshop, each winner produced a short film about their story. Watch it below.

Home isn’t just where Aliko Nomoa’s heart is — it’s where his soul and spirit are too.

Home is with his four brothers and two sisters on Mabuiag Island, a strip of land in the Torres Strait about 100km north of Thursday Island, surrounded by bright, clear water. There’s only around 250 people on Mabuiag Island and, Aliko says, “everyone knows everyone.”

Though Mabuiag is home, Aliko spends most of his days on Thursday Island for college, only coming home at the end of each term to be with his mum, dad and his siblings.

"College isn’t bad", he explains. "They look after you, feed you and give you somewhere to sleep." But going home is what Aliko lives for.

“College is fun. And my house parents on Thursday Island keep me safe. But I like being free too, to be able to do my own thing,” Aliko says.

“When I’m home I like to hunt with my uncle. I like to hunt turtles, and to watch and learn from my uncle while he hunts.”

Being able to hunt, for Aliko, means that he is able to support his family and support his community. When he turned 12 it meant he was allowed to step off the sidelines and start hunting himself. Now at 17, he’s allowed to hunt fish, turtles and their eggs.

“Once I grow a beard, there will be a shaving ceremony. I will be a man, then I can hunt dugong too. When I have earned enough money I can get a dinghy like the other men at home and go out to hunt. I can let the sun turn my skin darker. The darker you are at home, the tougher you are.”

There’s an unspoken respect that Aliko has for the natural world — the open water surrounding Mabuiag Island, the animals he hunts, as well as the stars and constellations above. The stars are what connect Aliko to his ancestors.

“Every island in the Torres Strait has its own stars. They can guide us, show us where to go and how to live. They help us find the way home.”

“My uncle tells me stories about the sky and stars. The one about Tagai, the great fisherman, as well as the one about the shark in the stars.” Aliko says he doesn’t know all the detail of these stories just yet — or necessarily all the meaning behind them — but that as he grows older he wants to “learn the ways of my past and present."

For Aliko, being connected to your culture means “having pride and respect in the people and things that have come before”. It means understanding something about who you are and what connects you to the ancestors.

And this belief in the importance of culture and understanding where you’re from is something Aliko wants to share. He spends a lot of time teaching people on Thursday Island — including his teacher Amy — words in his language, sharing pictures of Mabuiag and showing off dances.

But through his SBS film, Aliko is seeking to give the world beyond Mabuiag, and beyond the Torres Strait, a glimpse of what connects him to his culture.

“Some other people have lost or forgotten their culture. It makes me sad that they have lost this connection. I want to help them, to help everyone, to understand what my culture means to me and what it means to be from Mabuiag.”

His hope is that by showing people how important his connection is to his home, to his history and how proud this makes him feel, they too might get in touch with their own roots.

Aliko tells me it’s important to remember that there are some things that can’t be shared too. Things that are sacred, whether it be between the Mabuiag community, or between men, or between women.

“It’s important to keep some things secret. To keep some things special.”

Words: Shona McPherson
Mentor Director: Caro Macdonald
Mentor Director of Photography: Michael Latham
Photographer: Francesca Rizzoli
Set Liaison: Paul Gorrie