Film Voices & Bios
Jack Green
(Garrwa)
Jack Green (Garrwa) has been protecting Country for three decades in Gulf Country.
A former ringer, he worked for Mabunji Indigenous corporation before the Northern Land Council and is also a Senior Cultural Advisor to the Garawa and Waanyi/ Garawa Ranger programs and member of the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA). He has also been a Visiting Indigenous Fellow at the Australian National University.
Jack’s sharply analytical paintings carefully document and teach the costs to community, spirit and territory of under-regulated extraction. A two-time National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award finalist, he won the 2015 Australian Conservation Foundation Award and 2020 NT Resource Management Lifetime Achievement Award for his sustained efforts to speak out and question government legislation affecting the region.
He also collaborates on the ongoing exhibition series’ Open Cut and Lead in My Grandmother’s Body (with Therese Ritchie, Sean Kerins and many First Nations artists), interrogating Northern development through powerful installation projects.
Gadrian Hoosan
(Garrwa and Yanyuwa)
Gadrian Hoosan (Garrwa and Yanyuwa) is a community leader, musician and organiser, living in Borroloola and working with local, regional and national groups on climate justice, water protection and community energy projects. He recently ran as an independent for NT parliament in the Barkly region. Gadrian appeared as a small child in the groundbreaking film Two Laws (1981).
As a member of SEED Indigenous Youth Climate Network he appears in the sovereign anti-fracking campaign film Water is Life. He continues innovative film and music-making traditions with family and community (see Water Shield) and is the lead singer/songwriter of The Sandridge Band, legendary throughout the Gulf region. The song Ngabaya (Devil Dance) at the end of INFRACTIONS is from their recent album Brolga Dreaming available online.
Read by Gadrian Hoosan, ‘When Water is Death’.
Ray Dimakarri Dixon
(Mudburra)
Ray Dimakarri Dixon (Mudburra) is a musician, water bore runner and organiser for the Protect Country Alliance from Marlinja community. Ray’s family were part of the infamous ‘walk-off’ protests at Newcastle Waters station that led to Wave Hill and the long campaign for land rights in the Northern Territory. He plays with his daughter in the band Rayella and released his first solo album Standing Strong (2018) with Naarm record label www.finucaneandsmith.com.
Que Kenny
(Western Arrarnta)
Que Kenny (Western Arrarnta) community support worker, artist and activist living in Ntaria (Hermannsburg), 130km west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, also studying law at Deakin University, Melbourne.
She has been involved in the production of numerous fictional and environmental films and community projects in Ntaria and accompanied INFRACTIONS to the Berlin and London openings on her first overseas speaking tour to KW, ICA London, Savvy Contemporary, ICI Berlin, Arts Catalyst and Westminster University.
Read by Que Kenny, ‘We’re not buying the line that fracking brings wealth and opportunities to our communities’.
Neola Savage
& Juliri Ingra
(Gooreng Gooreng)
Neola Savage and Juliri Ingra (Gooreng Gooreng) and their 5 siblings are descendants of Dot and Hector Johnson who were active in the struggle for rights for Aboriginal and South Sea Islander peoples rights in Yallarm (Gladstone).
The Johnsons were part of the first generation of Aboriginal teachers’ aids in Central Queensland, training in Melbourne at Deakin and Brisbane in mid-life. Juliri Ingra is an artist (die work and fibres) while Neola Savage continues Indigenous education and liaison work in Woorabinda.
Read, ‘They were bullied and excluded but their message is love’.
Cassandra Williams
(Western Arrarnta)
Cassandra Williams (Western Arrarnta) is a third generation musician from the famous Williams family of Ntaria (Hermannsburg).
Robert O’Keefe
(Wambaya)
Robert O’Keefe (Wambaya) is a ranger and senior traditional owner for Karranjini (Paradise Pool) near Borroloola.
Professor Irene Watson
(Tanganekald, Meintangk Boandik)
Professor Irene Watson (Tanganekald, Meintangk Boandik) was the first Aboriginal law graduate in South Australia, has been a member of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement in South Australia since 1973, and was a contributing draftee to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 1990-1994 and UN Human Rights Council Expert Advisory Committee 2009, 2012.
Professor Watson is currently Pro Vice Chancellor Aboriginal Leadership and Strategy, and Professor of Law, at the University of South Australia, where her teaching and research focuses primarily on Indigenous Peoples in both domestic and international law. She is also Chairperson of Kungari Aboriginal Association, established in 1988 by elders for the purpose of managing and protecting Aboriginal lands and culture in the south east region.
She has served on numerous Aboriginal bodies across Australia and worked on film productions primarily concerned with advancing Aboriginal rights. Her most recent and groundbreaking books are Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism, and International Law: Raw Law (Routledge 2015), and Indigenous Peoples as Subjects in International Law (Routledge 2017). Her countries of the Coorong and the south east of South Australia are also threatened by fracking.