19/08/2026
Great news. Tickets are now on sale for the 3rd Annual Shoalhaven First Nations Festival to be held at Huskisson Pictures on Sept 19. Check out the program below.
Tickets can be purchased using the following link to trybooking after the program details.
This years theme Celebrating the Achievements of First Nations People in Caring for Country, led us to some amazing young filmmakers whose work embodies the theme of NAIDOC Week - The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy.
The 7 films that we will be screening all reflect, in different ways, the complexity of truth telling and reckoning with the past. Some of the filmmakers use archival footage, including clips from the first films recorded about First Nations People as well as, many years later, by First Nations filmmakers. In selecting the clips, these filmmakers pulled no punches - doing what Uncle Gerry has always encouraged us to do, telling it as it is... the impact of colonisation on loss of culture and intergenerational trauma.
Showcasing the Work of Young Indigenous Storytellers and Filmmakers
– telling their own stories, in their own voices…using archival footage to reflect on the history of the past 250 years
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People should be aware that these films may contain images, voices and names of deceased persons.
PROGRAM
Opening session (2pm – 3.30pm)
• Welcome to Country given by Uncle Gerry Moore, OAM, Yuin Elder, President, SFNFF
• Wreck Bay Elders introduce the film celebrating the hand back of their Country in 1995
• *Booderee Handback 30 Years On* - (2026) Documentary about 30th Anniversary Event made by SFNFF and BE Studios in association with Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council and Booderee National Park management.
• *Babanil* - (2023) Documentary about knowing Country, creating memories with Country, and maintaining Country for the next generation. Filmmaker Marlikka Perdrisat’s family home movies include rare footage of hunting, ceremony and diving for pearl shell that was filmed in the remote 1940s Kimberley. This, interwoven with Australian archive material from the same era, shows how every person across this continent has memories entwined with Country. Stories heard from parents and grandparents, about when they were young, creating nostalgia and fondness for place.
Marlikka Perdrisat is a Nyikina Warrwa and Wangkumara Barkindji woman. She feels a deep sense of responsibility to spread awareness of First Law — the guiding principles that First Peoples generated over aeons to govern the diverse regions of the place currently known as Australia.
https://aiatsis.gov.au/presentation/keynote-marlikka-perdrisat
• *Keeping Country Strong*- (2025) “There was a time when our mob weren’t allowed on Country. It’s only the last 40 years that we’ve been able to get land back to our community” Documentary exploring the vital work of Indigenous rangers in land and sea management, environmental protection, and cultural maintenance.
Country Needs People works alongside over 50 Indigenous partners to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in protecting and restoring biodiversity across their lands and seas while sustaining, strengthening and transmitting culture on Country. www.countryneedspeople.org.au
• *Bringing Him Home* - (2025) Peter’s great-uncle, an Aboriginal WWI soldier, is buried far away from his family and traditional lands. With a cultural belief that his ancestor’s spirit won’t be at rest until he returns home, Peter travels to France to visit his grave, performing a traditional ceremony to bring his spirit home. Directed by Dylan Nicholls
Dylan Nicholls is a Yuwaalaraay filmmaker, graduating in 2024 from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. His work focuses on First Nations culture, truth-telling, healing, mental health, and community. Dylan’s truth-telling approach in his documentaries, Bringing His Spirit Home and Echos of Dissent, is designed to enrich our understanding of Australian culture: “Looking back on different historical events in Australia and looking at them through a First Nations lens and honouring those stories that have been forgotten”.
https://www.aftrs.edu.au/news/2025/celebrating-strength-vision-and-legacy-with-dylan-nicholls/
AFTERNOON TEA 3.30pm – 4.00pm
Closing session (4.00 – 6.00pm)
• *The Secret Waterhole* - (2024) Three cousins set out on a journey guided by their Nan's map to a secret waterhole in order to fulfil a special request. Written and directed by Elias Rees.
Elias Rees is a proud Gomeroi, Warramungu, and Chilean man. Beginning his career in film as an actor, Elias is now an emerging producer, writer, and community leader, and also serves on the Beyond Empathy Board. In The Secret Waterhole, Elias collaborates once again with Phil Crawford, the project lead for many of the BE projects he participated in during his youth.
https://www.coequal.com.au/the-secret-waterhole
• *Echos of Dissent* - (2024) Director Dylan Nicholls attempts to piece together the tragic life story of Anthony Martin Fernando, an Aboriginal man who protested Indigenous rights over a century ago in Europe. Fernando’s warnings were guided by law, by memory, and by spirit carried from home and Dylan uncovers just how prophetic Fernando’s protests would become. His decision to re-embody the man through his own father re-knits that story back into community.
• *Winhanganha*- Remember. Think. Know. (2025) A groundbreaking film made entirely of archival footage held by the National Film and Sound Archive. Wiradjuri artist Jazz Money examines how archives and the legacies of collection affect First Nations People and wider Australia and attempts to acknowledge the horrors, joys and beauties held within the archive. Winhanganha is Jazz’s first feature film and was commissioned by the National Film and Sound Archive.
Jazz Money is a proud descendant of the Wiradjuri nation and is currently based on Wangal land in Sydney and is a resident artist at the Parramatta Artist Studios. With a practice centred in poetics, Jazz Money produces work across a range of mediums including visual art, film, performance, audio and publishing.
Caring for Country, Caring for people: showcasing work of young First Nations storytellers and filmmakers
