Indigenous Collection

The Indigenous collection holds moving image and sound recordings depicting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures over the past 110 years, a priceless link to the past.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been the subject of recordings since the earliest days of moving image. In 1898, the British anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon filmed Torres Strait Islanders and mainland Aborigines in the world’s first film of an anthropological field trip.

The Indigenous collection spans a century’s worth of audiovisual technology, from nitrate film and wax cylinders to digital formats.

The moving image collection includes feature films, documentaries, commercial and community television, ethnographic recordings, and home movies.

The recorded sound collection holds ethnographic recordings, commercial recordings, community radio, oral histories and spoken word performances.

The documents and artefacts collection contains posters, scripts, equipment, scrapbooks and photographs.

Additional Resources

Collection Search
For access to information and items representing more than 100 years of film, television, radio and recorded sound. Some material available online.

The Film Australia Collection
A diverse range of over 5000 titles of quality Australian documentary and educational programs, spanning a century of the nation’s film production.

Digital Learning Resource Finder
To view Indigenous educational content from the Digital Learning resources gathered from various databases. Especially helpful for teachers and other educational staff.

Indigenous Research Fellowship
Are you an Indigenous performer, artist, researcher, film-maker, cultural custodian or archive professional? Find out more about the NFSA Indigenous Research Fellowship.

australianscreen
To view a curated selection from our Indigenous collection. The clips in this collection are also accompanied by teachers’ notes created by specialist curriculum writers.

Produced by Indigenous practitioners
To view titles produced by Indigenous practitioners.

Representations of Indigenous Australians
To view titles with representations of Indigenous Australian peoples and culture by non-Indigenous producers.

Indigenous Australians
To view titles tagged with ‘Indigenous Australians’.

Indigenous Music
To view titles tagged with 'Indigenous music’.

AC Haddon’s Films
A national treasure: the oldest film made of Torres Strait Islanders and of Aboriginal people.

Indigenous Filmmaking
To read more about the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in film.