The Australian Wars facts for kids
The Australian Wars is a three-part 2022 documentary series about the Australian frontier wars by Indigenous Australian filmmaker Rachel Perkins for SBS Television.
Contents
Production
The series was directed and narrated by Rachel Perkins, a filmmaker of Arrernte and Kalkadoon lineage. It was produced by Blackfella Films for SBS, with investment from Screen Australia and financial support from Shark Island Foundation and Screen NSW. Perkins changed the title from First Wars after filming. Blackfella Films and SBS collaborated with an Aboriginal-led organisation called Culture is Life to publish educational resources using short clips from the series.
The series was made available to stream on demand in Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean as well as English.
Summary
The series traces the Australian frontier wars from the landing of the First Fleet in 1788 until the 1920s. It explores the phases, locations and features of the wars, seeking to understand the tactics and strategies employed by both British and Aboriginal people, and asking why war was never declared. It focuses particularly on Aboriginal resistance to settlement, and explores the lives of those involved in the wars, as well as its impact and legacy on Australia today and what Perkins calls "the great Australian silence" about many of the massacres. The first episode focuses on events in and around Sydney, the second episode solely on Tasmania, and the final episode looks at the formation of the native police corps in Queensland.
The series weaves together interviews with indigenous and non-indigenous historians including Marcia Langton and Henry Reynolds, re-enactments of events, study of colonial records, oral testimony from survivors' descendants and archaeological research. It includes investigation of the war's impact on Aboriginal women. Perkins also revisited her own family's story, returning to the location of the massacre her grandmother survived on Arrernte Country in the Northern Territory, and including testimony from her grandmother recorded in the 1970s.
Ratings
The premiere episode on 21 September 2022 was SBS' highest rated program with 154,000 viewers overnight. The final episode on 5 October had a viewing audience of 147,000 on overnight ratings, rising to 335,000 on daily consolidated ratings.
Awards and nominations
Casting director Anousha Zarkesh won the 2022 Casting Guild of Australia Award for 'Achievement in Casting' for the series.
