UNDERMINED: TALES FROM THE KIMBERLEY

21st October 2021

A vital documentary about the ongoing fight to save the vast Kimberley region of north-west Australia from an unprecedented land grab. UNDERMINED investigates the politics of an area now branded “the future economic powerhouse of Australia,” and what this means for First People and their unique cultural landscapes.

The screening was followed by a Q&A with director Nicholas Wrathall.

Presented by the Menzies Australia Institute in association with Flourishing Diversity, Invisible Dust and ORIGINS.

Vai

6th August 2021

New Zealand 2019 / Directors: Becs Arahanga, Amberley Jo Aumua, Matasila Freshwater, Dianna Fuemana, Miria George, Ofa Guttenbeil, Marina McCartney, Nicole Whippy

Co-presented with Aya Films.

Eight connecting moments of seemingly different lives thread together Vai’s journey of empowerment through culture over her lifetime. Beautifully shot over seven Pacific countries, and played by a different Indigenous actress in each place, Vai links together a story of family, culture, and at times, isolation. A delicate exploration into the meaning of growth, adaptation, and most notably, a connection to water and home.

Michael Walling: VAI is made up of nine ten-minute vignettes, portraying a woman called Vai (meaning “water”) at different stages of her life. They aren’t actually the same woman - she could be many ages in the same era, and moves around the islands of the Pacific - but they are like the same woman, with other people in her family always having the same name, even if their personalities are very different. Vai, water, flows between Polynesian people and binds them together across the vast Ocean. And, like this story of common cultures and continuous regeneration, the very process of film-making suggests a community-