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Buried Country

1h 15m Music, Documentary, History, First Nations 2000

An enlightening documentary celebrating the untold story of Australian Aboriginal country music.

Where African Americans turned to the blues, Aboriginal Australians found inspiration in country and western and created a style of their own. From the bush to the city, Aboriginal people have used country music to tell their stories of life and the struggle for justice. Featuring rare recordings, archival images and first-hand interviews with the singers and songwriters, Buried Country traces six decades of this rich tradition. What emerges is not only a poignant record of Indigenous Australia, but also a celebration of how music can lift the human spirit.

Director

Andy Nehl

Writer

Andy Nehl

Producer

Liz Watts

Director of Photography

Warwick Thornton

Language

English

Country

Australia

Bonus Content

In Conversation

19m

Gillian Moody, Curator of Buwindja, sits down with Pauline Clague, filmmaker and Associate Professor, Jumbunna, UTS, as they take a deep dive into the rich history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling in screen culture. They reflect on how the films in the Buwindja Collection showcase eras of change in filmmaking with fascinating insights into the dramatic shift from stories being told about First Nations peoples to Indigenous filmmakers telling their own stories. As Pauline powerfully states, it is now the case that ’Nothing about us without us’”. 

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The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices or names of deceased persons in photographs, film, audio recordings and/or text.