Memory Mixtape

We make sense of the world through the ever-present past. Neika Lehman (trawlwoolway) curates a lineup of films that emphasise one of Blak cinema’s strongest joining links: memory.

Thinking about Indigenous time — deep time, recent past, present, coming future and deep future, how do we creatively speak to our sense of time and place through cinema? What deeper memories can we conjure, what do we prioritise and which do we choose to share?

As First Nations peoples we are always tending to memory work. Whether it be talking to Country, scouring archives, sharing family stories, continuing cultural practices and speaking loudest when our truths must be heard. Memory work on film is a powerful mechanism we use for getting our stories across, whether to move minds in cinemas or as evidence in the court.  

Memory Mixtape focuses on films that contest official histories, celebrate ancestral embodiment, and are documents for change. Blak cinema is used as evidence for land rights claims, royal commissions and is often the mouthpiece for historical truths colonial Australia tries to forget. But forgetting isn’t in our business.