Frank Rijavec

Exile And The Kingdom

Frank Rijavec

Mick Innes

A comprehensive account of the experiences of a community of Aboriginal people from pre-colonial times to the 1990s. This film makes the connection between Aboriginals in chains in the 19th century and Aboriginal people in prisons today, so providing a deeper understanding of how the violence and denials of the past inform the present. It argues that the relentless removal of the Yindjibarndi/Ngarluma people into coastal ghettos has led to the community's current problems. Yet it never allows the viewer to forget the significance and influence of spiritual homelands, the bedrock upon which Yindjibarndi/Ngarluma tribal law is based. Above all, Exile and the Kingdom is a beautifully logical and persuasive argument for land rights.

A Million Acres a Year

Frank Rijavec

After World War Two, successive governments sold off and encouraged the clearing of less viable areas for agriculture. During the 1960s a million acres a year were opened up. Much of the land was unsuitable for farming yet the new landholders were obliged to bulldoze and burn the native bush or risk losing their allocation. Most were eager to do so and pressured the government to release even more land. The long-term consequences have been devastating, with industrial farming and salinity turning most of this priceless natural heritage into a biological desert.