This unusual documentary was made by the Borroloola Aboriginal Community with Carolyn Strachan and Alessandro Cavadini, who provide these notes:
“The Borroloola Aboriginal Community is made up of four language groups from the gulf region of the Northern Territory. The people live within a tribal structure and all decisions concerning this film were made within this structure. This film is not a conventional documentary--it comes from a different perspective, from Aboriginal community commitment, and in doing so it also challenges notions of filmmaking practice, of history, of ethnography, of objectivity.
“The Aboriginal people of Borroloola have a traumatic history of massacres, institutionalization and dispossession of their lands. Reflection upon this history is increasingly part of the Borroloola people's basis for action and the consolidation and definition of aims. The request for this film to be made is part of this process.”
The film is divided into four parts: 1) Police Times, a dramatic reenactment by Borroloola tribespeople of a 1933 police roundup; 2) Welfare Times, describing the Community under the Welfare system from the 1950s until the present; 3) Struggle for Our Land; and 4) Living with Two Laws, describing the present movement back to traditional land and ceremonial practices.