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Established in 1993, the Department has given Indigenous creatives the chance to share their distinctive and diverse voices on screen.
To date, Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department has provided more than $35 million in funding for development, production and fostering talent, and supported more than 160 projects. These include dramas such as Redfern Now, Samson & Delilah, Spear, Mystery Road, Gladstone, Toomelah, 8MMM Aboriginal Radio as well as numerous documentaries including We Don’t Need a Map, and the historical series First Australians.
In 1999, there were only two Indigenous actors in sustaining roles on Australian television. Now in 2018, 5% of main characters are Indigenous.
Head of the Indigenous Department, Penny Smallacombe tells us why the Department is so important and how it has made a difference to Australia’s screen sector: