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Learn More: Movies, Books, Plays  & Documentaries 

 

The following includes a list of films, books, plays and documentaries that explore the lives and experiences of some First Nations people, migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and survivors of torture and trauma. These resources offer insight into some of Australia’s past and ongoing issues including systemic and institutionalised racism while highlighting the resilience and persistence of people. Featured on this list are also Indian language films that explore the impacts of colonialism and migration, addressing how white powers have shaped and disrupted cultures and sense of belonging around the world. These films also highlight resistance, perseverance and resilience. This list is by no means exhaustive.

 

Please check the trigger warnings before accessing these resources

 

Note: The following may contain names and images of people who have died.

 

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Stories of First Nations People

 

Australia Day (2017) [Film]

  • Three Australians from different backgrounds collide and must deal with their cultural similarities, as well as issues of national identity and racial tension that are prevalent in Australian society.
    More about the film available here: https://www.iconfilm.com.au/movies/australia-day.
    Available to watch on Netflix, Stan, Foxtel, YouTube, Google Play Movies and Apple TV. 

 

In My Blood It Runs (2019)  [Documentary]

  • An intimate and compassionate observational documentary from the perspective of a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy in Alice Springs, Australia, struggling to balance his traditional Arrernte/Garrwa upbringing with a state education.
    More about the film available here: https://inmyblooditruns.com/.
    Available to watch on Netflix and Apple TV. 

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Beneath clouds (2002) [Film]

  • A young Indigenous woman and an escaped prisoner reluctantly embark on a journey together that is both physically and emotionally challenging.
    More about the film here:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0295876/?ref_=ttpl_ov.
    Available to watch on Netflix. 

 

Stolen Generations (2000) [Film]

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) [Film]

  • Inspired by true events, this film follows the story of three Aboriginal girls after they are taken from their home and country in 1931. Taken to a facility called the Moore River Native Settlement, the girls escape and attempt to make it back to their family. 
    More about the film here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit-Proof_Fence.
    Available to watch on Netflix, Stan, YouTube, Google Play Movies, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. 

 

No Sugar by Jack Davis [Play]

  • Written by First Nations Australian and playwright Jack Davis, No Sugar is set during the Great Depression in Northam, Western Australia and in the Moore River Settlement. This play explores the marginalisation and systemic racism in Australia during the 1920s and 1930s. The play focuses on the Millimurras, an Australian Aboriginal family, as they attempt to survive and persist.
    More about the play here: https://apt.org.au/product/no-sugar-2/
     

After the Apology: Sorry means you don’t do it again (2017) [Documentary]

  • This documentary explores the continuing practice of child removal, 9 years after former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a formal apology to the Stolen Generations, on behalf of the nation. The community is responding, and four grandmothers start a national movement to change out-of-home care practices that disproportionately impact Aboriginal children and their families.
    See https://aftertheapology.com/ for more information.
    Available to watch on SBS On Demand.

 

Incarceration Nation (2021) [Documentary]

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are amongst the most incarcerated people in the world, making up 3% of the general population and 27% of the prison population. This documentary explores the systemic injustice and oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the Australian justice system, and questions why petty crimes like unpaid parking fines can lead to imprisonment.
    See https://incarcerationnation.com.au/ for more information.
    Available to watch on SBS On Demand.

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The Last Daughter (2022) [Documentary]

  • This documentary follows Brenda’s journey to uncover the truth about her past and reconcile the two sides of her family - both Blak and White.
    See https://www.thelastdaughter.com.au/ for more information.
    Available to watch on Netflix and ABC iView.

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Stories of Refugees and Asylum Seekers

 

Stateless (2020) [Series]

  • Inspired by true events, the lives of four strangers, who are trying to escape different things, collide at an immigration detention centre in Australia.
    More about the series here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4878488/.
    Available to watch on Netflix, YouTube, Apple TV and ABC iView.

 

Chasing Asylum  (2016) [Documentary]

  • Exposé of Australia's highly controversial Pacific Solution policy which sees asylum seekers arriving via boat processed in offshore processing centres.
    More about the documentary here: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/chasing-asylum/.
    Available to watch on YouTube and Google Play Movies. 

 

Leaky Boat (2011 ) [Documentary]

  • When Australia stopped the refugee boats in 2001, most Australians applauded. Ten years later, the people who were there tell us now what we didn’t know then. We hear from the Norwegian merchant-sailors on Tampa, the Australian Navy sailors sent to turn the boats back, and the refugees themselves.
    More about the film here: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/leaky-boats/.
    Available to watch on YouTube. 
     

Island of Hungry Ghosts (2019) [Documentary]

  • While the yearly crab migration takes place and locals perform rituals for ghosts, a trauma therapist living on Australia's Christmas Island works with asylum seekers. They are held indefinitely at the island's refugee detention centre.
    More about the film here: http://www.christmasislandfilm.com/.
    Available to watch on Amazon Prime Video. 

 

Human rights overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia by Linda Briskman, Susie Latham and Chris Goddard(2008) [Book] 

 

Unbreakable Threads by Emma Adams (2018)  [Book]

 

Between us by Clare Atkins (2018)  [Book]

  • A story about two teenagers separated by cultural differences, their parents’ expectations and twenty kilometres of barbed-wire fence.
    More about the book here: https://clareatkins.com.au/between-us/

 

Home is a place called nowhere by Leon Rosselson (2002) [Book]

  • This topical, fast-paced novel deals with issues of discrimination and prejudice against refugees. Amina runs away to London after a crisis in her adoptive family, hoping to track down her mother and to discover the truth about her apparent abandonment. Paul, an older and more streetwise runaway, helps her to make contact with the refugee community. It is by listening to other people and their stories that she comes, finally, to understand her own.
    More about the book here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Home-Place-Called-Nowhere-Rosselson/dp/019272586.
     

Girl underground by Morris Gleitzman (2004) [Book]

  • Bridget wants a quiet life. Including, if possible, keeping her parents out of prison. Then a boy called Menzies makes her an offer she can't refuse, and they set off on a job of their own. It's a desperate, daring plan – to rescue two kids, Jamal and Bibi, from a desert detention centre. Can Bridget and Menzies pull off their very first jail break, or will they end up behind bars too?
    More about the book here: https://www.morrisgleitzman.com/girl-underground.htm
     

Safe Harbour (2018)  [Series]

  • A group of friends head to Indonesia for a holiday on a yacht, when they come across a sinking fishing boat filled with desperate asylum seekers. The decisions they make change their lives forever.
    More about the series here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6816530/.
    Available to watch on SBS On Demand, YouTube and Apple TV.
     

Go back to where you came from (2011 - 2018)  [Documentary series]

 

Refugee: the diary of Ali Ismail by Alan Sunderland (2006)  [Book]

  • Fleeing persecution in Afghanistan, Ali Ismail eventually finds himself held in a detention centre in the South Australian outback. For twelve months he endures hardship and despair while he waits to find out whether he will be allowed to stay in Australia. Includes historical note about asylum seekers in Australia.
    More about the book here: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/7039819-refugee.
     

Hearts and Bones (2019) [Film] 

  • A refugee from South Sudan tries to convince a war photographer to exclude a controversial photograph from his exhibition that shows a massacre in the former's village. This film explores Trauma, survival, and healing.
    More about the film here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8689644/.
    Available to watch on Google Play Movies, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

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Stories of Migrants

 

 Oranges and Sunshine (2010) [Film]

  • Margaret Humphreys, a British social worker, uncovers a plot where young children are sent to Australia and subjected to shocking forms of abuse.
    More about the film here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1438216/.
    Available to watch on SBS On Demand, Stan, YouTube, Google Play Movies, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. 

 

Where are you really from? (2018)  [Documentary Series]

 

Once upon a time in Cambratta (2012)  [Series]

  • The story of how a newly-arrived migrant community is torn apart by crime but fights back against street gangs, political dysfunction and a lack of police resourcing to rediscover itself.
    More about the series here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2176707/.
    Available to watch on ClickView. 

 

Love and Vertigo by Hsu-Ming Teo (2000) [Book]

 

The Tribe by Michael Mohammed Ahmad (2024) [Book]

  • For the last three decades the representation of Arab-Australian Muslims has been coloured by media reports of sexual assault, drug-dealing, drive-by shootings and terrorist conspiracy. This has made it difficult to understand a community which plays an important role in contemporary Australian society. Here, in his first work of fiction, Michael Mohammed Ahmad offers a privileged introduction to the life and customs of ‘The Tribe’, members of a small Muslim sect who fled to Australia just before the civil war in Lebanon. His stories focus on the relationships between three generations of an extended family, the House of Adam, as seen by one of its youngest offspring, a child called Bani, at key moments in its development. Ahmad’s writing is aware of tradition, but its real power is in its simplicity and honesty, and the directness with which he conveys the emotional responses of his young narrator.
    More about the book here: https://giramondopublishing.com/books/the-tribe/.

 

The Permanent Resident by Roanna Gonsalves (2018) [Book]

  • Roanna Gonsalves’ short stories unearth the aspirations, ambivalence and guilt laced through the lives of 21st century immigrants, steering through clashes of cultures, trials of faith, and squalls of racism. Sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes playful, they cut to the truth of what it means to be a modern outsider.
    More about the book here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32886399-the-permanent-resident.

 

The Melting Pot by Christopher W Cheng (2007) [Book]

  • Set in 1903 and during the introduction of the Immigration Restriction Act, otherwise known as the White Australia Policy, this story explores the life of Edward, Chek Chee, a Chinese-Australian boy as he struggles with his identity, feeling like an outsider in both the White Australian community and the Chinese community.
    More about the book: https://chrischeng.com/the-melting-pot.html.

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Stories of Survivors of Torture and Trauma 

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The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam (2009) [Book]

  • Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. She suffered unspeakable acts of brutality and witnessed horrors that would haunt her for the rest of her life–until, in her early twenties, she managed to escape. Unable to forget the girls she left behind, Mam became a tenacious and brave leader in the fight against human trafficking, rescuing sex workers–some as young as five and six–offering them shelter, rehabilitation, healing, and love and leading them into new life.
    More about the book here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2634030-the-road-of-lost-innocence.

 

Disposable people by Kevin Bales [Book]

  • Slavery is illegal throughout the world, yet more than twenty-seven million people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions. Kevin Bales's disturbing story of contemporary slavery reaches from Pakistan's brick kilns and Thailand's brothels to various multinational corporations. His investigations reveal how the tragic emergence of a "new slavery" is inextricably linked to the global economy.
    More about the book here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pp4n3.

 

Half The Sky: How to Change the World by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn [Book]

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Indian Language Movies

[all available on Netflix with English Subtitles]

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Lagaan (2001) [Hindi Film]

  • Set in the late 19th century, this film revolves around villagers who challenge British colonialists to a game of cricket to avoid paying taxes. It portrays the struggles of Indian villagers against colonial oppression.
    More about this film: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169102/.

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Court (2014) [Marathi Film]

  • This film critically examines the Indian judicial system, reflecting on social injustices and systemic oppression faced by marginalized communities. It addresses the lingering impacts of colonial governance.
    More about this film: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3717068/.

 

Sudani from Nigeria (2018) [Malayalam Film]

  • Though light-hearted in tone, this film follows the story of a Nigerian football player in Kerala who finds himself injured and unable to return home. Through his interactions with the local people, the movie delves into themes of migration, the challenges of cultural displacement, and the warmth of human connections that help individuals heal emotionally. The film touches on trauma in the context of isolation and unfamiliarity.
    More about this film here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7581572/.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live and work, and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. We recognize that this land was never ceded and honor the enduring cultural connections to lands, waters, and communities. We are committed to creating practices that foster respect, cultural safety, and inclusivity for all.

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