A celebration of First Nations culture

Katele (Mudskipper), from director John Harvey, won Best Australian Short Film at Flickerfest and MIFF in 2023. The film tells the story of the worn-down Martha (Elma Kris),whose thankless job at a laundromat goes from mundane to extraordinary when she is offered a glimpse into another life by an unexpected visitor.

Read more and watch a clip from Katele (Mudskipper)

Youngfella Wenye (Kurt Abbott) can’t catch a break. But while many people have vision boards to manifest a life of luxury, Wenye literally dreams of finding gold – not just so that he can buy a nice Toyota, but so that he can procure some grub. He’s hungry and tired of not having enough.

Read more and watch a clip from Shiny One

Kindred (2023) is a deeply personal feature-length documentary that delves into the emotional landscape of family, love and loss through the eyes of two close friends, filmmakers Adrian Russell Wills and Gillian Moody, who first met while making the short film Angel, and realised they’d grown up only streets apart.

Read more about Kindred

Blood Brothers – Freedom Ride (1993), directed by Rachel Perkins, is a documentary chronicling the 1965 'freedom ride' led by her father, Dr 'Kumantjayi' (Charlie) Perkins AO. During this pivotal event, Dr Perkins and fellow University of Sydney students travelled through rural NSW to expose racial segregation in Australia.

Eddie Koiki Mabo (1936–1992) was a Meriam man from the island of Mer (Murray Island) in the Torres Strait. His name has become synonymous with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land rights because he was a key plantiff in the Mabo case. 

Her voice has graced our ears for decades, and her compositions and operas are genre-defining gems that enrich all who experience them. Perhaps most significant is Australia’s first Indigenous opera Pecan Summer, written and composed by Deborah.

Listen to Dali Mana Gamarada and read more about Deborah Cheetham

David Gulpilil AM (1953–2021), forever changed the way Australian film represents Indigenous people and their cultural heritage.

A Yolngu man from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, he was a dancer, actor, singer, painter and storyteller. His first acting role – in Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout (1971) – began a career that spanned over 50 years.

Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter were partners in life and music for more than 35 years before Ruby's death in 2010. This collection explores the collaboration between Ruby and Archie and includes rare footage, live recordings, photographs and home movies.

From Evonne Goolagong to Cathy Freeman, we shine a light on triumphant moments in sport by First Nations athletes.

We spoke with Warwick Thornton about his film The Darkside (2013) – an anthology of first-hand Indigenous ghost stories. The Darkside includes a sequence set at the NFSA in Canberra which explores the history of the building as the former Australian Institute of Anatomy where First Nations remains were kept and studied.

In 2022, the NFSA screened the documentary Ablaze (2021) and hosted a Q&A with co-directors Tiriki Onus and Alec Morgan. Ablaze tells the story of Bill Onus, a Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri man from Victoria and Australia’s first Aboriginal filmmaker. He revived his people’s culture in the 1940s and ignited a civil rights movement that would, against enormous odds, change the course of history.

The NFSA celebrates Deborah Mailman in this online collection covering her stellar screen career. As well as being one of Australia's favourite actors, Deborah Mailman is also an important figure in First Nations filmmaking and storytelling. Her work has been part of a movement that has reframed the way First Nations performers are cast and portrayed in mainstream productions and helped empower Indigenous artists to tell their own stories.

First Nations Sounds of Australia features the voices of First Nations artists who have been inducted into the NFSA's Sounds of Australia registry. They include the best-selling Aboriginal music album in history, the first mainstream chart hit for an Aboriginal artist, a poetry reading by Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Tasmanian Aboriginal songs and languages recorded in the 1890s.

Also represented are popular artists like Christine Anu, Archie Roach, Kev Carmody, No Fixed Address, Yothu Yindi and the Warumpi Band.

This was the first recording by an Indigenous Australian to achieve mainstream chart success, reaching No. 1 on the Sydney charts and No. 10 nationally. The song established Jimmy Little as a star in Australian popular music and his career continued for over 40 years.

This collection celebrates the black and deadly women of Australian music, from Fanny Smith in the 1890s to Jessica Mauboy in the 21st century, and hits an array of genres including country, jazz, pop, folk and rock.

Following in the footsteps of her aunt Georgia Lee, Wilma Reading’s jazz ambition took her around the world. Throughout her 40-year career Wilma performed with some of the world’s leading jazz musicians, including the legendary Duke Ellington Band. She also appeared on America's most iconic TV talk show, The Johnny Carson Show.

Yothu Yindi's 'Treaty': On 14 July 1991, a remix of Yothu Yindi’s ‘Treaty’ became the first song by an Aboriginal band to reach the mainstream pop singles chart in Australia, peaking at No. 11 in September 1991. Yothu Yindi collaborated with Paul Kelly and Peter Garrett in writing ‘Treaty’, which was included on the band’s second album, Tribal Voice (released October 1991). The song was a powerful protest against the lack of a treaty with Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Read the story behind the 1991 remix of 'Treaty'.

This iconic Australian protest song pays tribute to the Gurindji people. Written by prominent Australian singer-songwriters Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody, the lyrics tell the story of the Wave Hill Walk-Off in 1966 – an event which become a catalyst for the Aboriginal land rights movement.