Short films about K&M Heritage and Country to screen on SBS – NITV

Together with The Digital Dreamtime Project and Weerianna Street Media, KMAC has helped produce two short films featuring K&M Elders Jack Alexander and Mark Lockyer. Both films are part of a cultural awareness campaign to share K&M culture and beliefs with both its people and the wider community. The masterly crafted short films capture the magnificent K&M country with narrative from Jack and Mark about country, its meaning and care.

The first short film is called Welcome to Country and was funded by Woodside. The film features Jack expressing Welcome to Country and describing where K&M country covers, naming the well-known features – Mt Brockman, Hamersley Ranges, Robe River and Red Hill. Jack introduces Pannawonica Hill and talks about the law that is passed down from the old people. He talks about the importance of seeking permission from the guardians before doing things on the land and significance that

The second short film is called Palapuni (Pannawonica Hill) and was commissioned by SBS. Featuring both Mark and Jack, it incorporates a Welcome to Country and a narration about their lives and meaning of country to them, the importance of respect and care for the land and the role of Kuruma and Marthudunera people in this stewardship.

Mark also recounts the story of how Palapuni came to be in the landscape:

“…Pannawonica Hill, the name of it is Palapuni, it means a mound of mud from under the sea. Long ago, there was no hill. There were two red breasted birds that ew down to the coast and started singing. They sang and they sang and dragged the hill out from the sea through the land to where it is today. When they were dragging it, seawater also came behind the hill following the groove it left as it was dragged through the country.

The film Palapuni will be screened on SBS NITV.