Very honoured to learn that our documentary, Protecting Country, is part of the Official Selection for the Rio de Janeiro International Uranium Film Festival in May 2020! Details of the Program here.
On December 12th, 2019, I was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in my graduation ceremony at the Australian National University: I am now officially Dr. Magali McDuffie!
On December 13th 2019 I was honoured an privileged to be announced as the recipient of the SAE Australasia Engagement Award:
Dr. Magali McDuffie has been liaising with various local and national organisations to establish partnerships that enable SAE Perth students to secure internship hours and valuable, real-world experience. Of particular importance are the many connections Dr. McDuffie has made with First Nations groups and community organisations. By establishing partnerships with community organisations Dr. McDuffie has improved the student’s work opportunities – particularly in the emerging area of community media work. She has helped students to strengthen their transferable skills, with a focus on cultural sensitivity and engagement with indigenous organisations and other communities.
As part of my role as the Head of the Film Department at SAE Creative Institute, Perth, I facilitated an opportunity for some of our fantastic students to work with the United Nations Association of Western Australia on their annual UN Day Gala and Awards Event on October 25th. Two of the students, Bryony and Sarah, wrote an article about their experience in the national SAE Newsletter.
“… Being an audio student it is rare for these opportunities to pop up which carry such significance. The opportunity to learn from Head of Film Magali McDuffie was a privilege and an unbelievable insight into documentary making”.
Sarah Rooks, Audio Student
Incredibly honoured and deeply moved to have our film, Protecting Country, as part of the 2019 Official Selection of the 13th Native Spirit Festival in London!
**** In Memory of Tauto Sansbury (1949-2019) ****
After nine years of very hard work, and incredible lived experiences with amazing people, I am delighted to announce that I received confirmation that my PhD had been awarded on September 11th, 2019. It certainly has been a long and arduous journey, but one that I am grateful for, and which would not have been possible without the patient teaching of three Nyikina sisters, Anne Poelina, Lucy Marshall, Jeannie Warbie, their families and communities, and the people of the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. When I started this thesis I set out to make their voices heard, and if I have achieved that, I will be very proud!
You can view the thesis on this link: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/165459
Absolutely delighted that one of our films, Bookarrarra Liyan Mardoowarra Booroo, has won the United Nations Association of Western Australia’s Short Film Competition in the Indigenous Culture Category. The film, produced by Madjulla Inc and featuring Anne Poelina and Jeannie Warbie, calls for the protection of the Mardoowarra, Fitzroy River, and for the recognition of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Thrilled to see our 2018 film, Protecting Country, about the proposed nuclear dump in South Australia, featured on the international Films For Action Documentary Platform, and on the Black Mist, Burnt Country website!
Vince Coulthard in Protecting Country (2018)
Gerry Georgatos is a social justice and human rights campaigner who has worked tirelessly against injustice his whole life, advocating for Aboriginal communities, homeless and disabled people, amongst many causes. It was an honour to make a short film with him, Homeless: Visible but Forgotten, to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people in Perth. You can read Gerry’s article in The Stringer, and view the short film here.
The Stringer: Homelessness
Incredibly stoked, after four months at the SAE Creative Institute in Perth, to have been promoted to the position of Film Department Coordinator! Looking forward to some great collaborations… So privileged to work with such amazing students and colleagues - SAE rocks!
Great to know that this film is still travelling, after four years… Three Sisters, Women of High Degree, is now showing on ICTV Play!
When you are at work on International Women’s Day and this poster suddenly pops up…
Stoked to see our film, Three Sisters, Women of High Degree, being screened at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra (Friday 8th March) as a special showcase event for International Women’s Day! Featuring Dr Anne Poelina, and Nyikina Senior Elders Lucy Marshall OAM, and Jeannie Warbie, three inspiring Nyikina sisters speaking passionately about the Nyikina creation stories of their country, the beautiful Kimberley region of Western Australia, and of their fight to protect it from massive industrialisation.
“Brilliant... Everyone loved it... All round a big hit! I love your work and more importantly the voices that get to get through”
On February 9th, 2019, I was contracted by my former employer, PAKAM Media, and the Broome Aboriginal Media Association, to cover the opening of the Desert, River, Sea Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. I was very happy to resume my role as a community media trainer for a day, working with artist Dolorosa Carrington, from Warmun Community, to cover the day’s events, talks, and workshops, and conduct interviews with the amazing Kimberley artists present for the opening. The film will be edited by Dolorosa for screening on Indigenous Community Television (ICTV) in the near future.
LET THEM SPEAK: DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE
Date
8th February 2019
Description
A 53 minute documentary film premiere featuring four courageous Wongi Aboriginal women who speak of the catastrophic effects of intergenerational sexual abuse they have suffered, shared and face as a Family.
Produced
Sharon Hume, Rosemary Bailey, Barbara McGillivray and Jillian Heneker.
Event MC
Megan Krakouer - NICRS (National Indigenous Critical Response Service)
Panel Chair
Dr. Hannah McGlade - Curtin University - legal academic and practitioner with special interest in Indigenous human rights.
Read the article written by Hannah McGlade at https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2019/02/11/its-time-change-aboriginal-women-will-stand-strong-against-sexual-violence-1
Increasingly, Aboriginal women are speaking out against men who sexually abused them as children. Last week in Perth the National Indigenous Critical Response Project launched Let Them Speak a documentary about four Aboriginal sisters from Leonora speaking out about sexual abuse they experienced. The film was launched at the same time as the report of the WA Coroner into the deaths of 12 Aboriginal youth in the Kimberley.
Executive Production
Gerry Georgatos - Institute for Social Justice and Human Rights (ISJHR) and the National Child Sexual Abuse Trauma Recovery Project (NCSATRP).
Music
Delly Stokes & Daughters ( Josephine, Iesha, Marika, Uniquewa)
Filmed and edited
Alexander Hayes & Magali McDuffie from Ngikalikarra Media, Perth, Western Australia.
Location
Kim Beazley Theatre, Murdoch University, Western Australia
Building 351 Murdoch University, 90 South St, Murdoch WA 6150
On January 21st 2019 I started a new job as a full-time Film Lecturer at the SAE Creative Media Institute in Northbridge (Perth). Loving working with wonderful, helpful colleagues and talented, enthusiastic students in an amazing, state-of-the-art facility! I am teaching Documentary Production, Cultural Perspectives, and Introduction to Cinematography and Media.
Very proud to announce our film, What is Fracking?, warning people of the dangers of fracking, has been released on Indigenous Community Television (ICTV) on 1st November 2018, to be played on the ICTV channel in remote Aboriginal communities, but also accessible on ICTVPlay: https://ictv.com.au/video/item/6064. Please re-share widely as this is an important issue in the Kimberley at the moment, with the Western Australian government close to announcing whether or not they will allow fracking in the beautiful Kimberley region!
Watch our series episodes here!
In the 1970s and 1980s, a campaign of weed eradication was started by the Agriculture Protection Board in Western Australia, to eliminate weeds such as Noogoora Burr, Mesquite and Parkinsonia. Many young unemployed Aboriginal men in the Kimberley jumped at the chance of having a well-paid job whilst being able to spend time on country. They sprayed two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. These, combined together, are known as Agent Orange, which was used during the Vietnam War. These men were told that the herbicides were so safe they could drink them. They were not told to use any protective gear, often coming home with their clothes soaked in the herbicide mixture. Many of them died very young, in their thirties. Many are dying of cancers now. Their partners and children were also affected, with some of their babies born with deformities, and young people dying early of rare cancers. These inter-generational impacts are still affecting their families today. To date, in spite of two inquiries in 2002 and 2004, there has been no official recognition of the plight of the families, or of the government organisation’s lack of duty of care for their employees. 2,4,5-T was banned in the United States in the early 1970s because of its adverse health effects. Scientific reports in the early 1980s raised concerns about health impacts, but nothing was done.
Because of our close relationship with Kimberley families affected by this, we were asked by them to produce a documentary enabling people to tell their personal stories. Thanks to private philanthropic funding, a total of 41 interviews were filmed by Alexander Hayes and myself and released on our Ngikalikarra YouTube Channel. We are now in the process of producing the documentary.
Please go to our Oethica Website for more information on this project: On Australian Shores, Survivor Stories
Very honoured to have a chapter co-written with Dr Anne Poelina published in Reading the Country, 30 Years On, which follows on the original work of Paddy Roe and Stephen Muecke, Reading the Country (1984).
"Reading the Country: 30 Years On is a celebration of that book—examining not only its place and time of creation but also its movement across social, philosophical and political surfaces, seeping into the way we look and learn and teach about how people are, or could be, part of country.
Recalling a spirit of intellectual risk and respect, in this collection Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, poets, writers and publishers acknowledge the past and look, with hope, to future transformations of culture and country".
Time flies... After working at PAKAM for 15 months as a Community Media Trainer, I am sadly relocating to Perth... So I thought it was time for a bit of an update on the work I did with PAKAM with some amazing people. In this time I travelled all over the Kimberley and Pilbara, visiting the communities of Ardyaloon (One Arm Point), Beagle Bay, Djarindjin, Bidyadanga, Balgo, Billiluna, Jigalong, Walkali, Warmun (Turkey Creek), Strelley, and Port Hedland. Below is a sample of all the films I have had the pleasure and privilege to work on with the PAKAM crew as a trainer, cameraperson, and / or editor! You can watch them on ICTVPlay from anywhere in the world!
KALACC Festival 2017: Strong Women
Remote Communities Utility Workers' Graduation 2017
Wandoo Wahpup (Showcased at the Tarnanthi National Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Exhibition in Adelaide, 2018)
Bedtime Stories Series: Yakulipa Kartantarrijirri (Turtle and Two Ducks)
Ardyaloon Indigenous AFL All Stars Visit
Bedtime Stories Series: Ngakalyalya Piyarrku (Cockatoo and Galah)
Looma Lady Eagles Grand Final Highlights (Winner of the ICTV Our Sport Award 2019)
Bedtime Stories Series: Kurrparnjipa Manganya (Magpie and Echidna)
Bedtime Stories Series: Wakilypirri Karliparrul (Emu and Turkey)
Bedtime Stories Series: Waparnupa Karnka (Eagle and Crow)
KALACC Festival 2017: Strong Culture
A Day in the Working Life of Minty Sahanna
Trauma and Healing Workshop at Ngumpan
