This year marks 25 years of Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department, which supports Indigenous Australians to tell their own screen stories.

16 August 2018

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:

To find out more visit Screen Australia’s website