Filmmakers Elsa and Charles Chauvel (Marta Dusseldorp and Ben Winspear) are introduced to the schoolgirls at St Mary’s Anglican Home in Alice Springs. 

They – along with the nuns – are excited to announce that they are filming Australia’s first full colour film and are there to audition the girls for a leading role. 

Betty (Amarlie Briscoe) wants to audition but Rosalie (Siobahn Breadan) has zero interest in the opportunity.  

Summary by Amal Awad

Martha (Elma Kris) tends to a shaky Katele (mudskipper) (Waangenga Blanco), who has slid out of one of the washing machines at the laundromat Martha works at, a shell filled with mud in hand. 

As she washes him, he slathers himself in mud until recognition settles on Martha – she knows Katele. This is a reunion.  

Summary by Amal Awad

Wenye (Kurt Abbott) has struck gold at a special tree, but Arelhampwe (Audrey Martin) tosses the gold nuggets away, telling Wenye that they’re no good.

A dispirited Wenye questions this wisdom – what’s wrong with it if it can get you things you need? But Arelhampwe knows it will only bring trouble. And then a young woman walks past in a shower of gold and Wenye’s focus shifts.  

Summary by Amal Awad

In a flashback, Franky and his father are sitting on the river bank, fishing lines cast into the river. Returning to the present, the Djarn Djarns dancers are walking towards the stage with the focused gaze of seasoned professionals. Summary by Romaine Moreton

Catherine (Sophie Lee) is terrified by a Mimi sculpture that has come to life in her apartment. She surveys the blood-like tracks that have appeared on the walls. Clearly frightened, she grabs a kitchen knife and tries to dial emergency services. She then confronts the Mimi but it remains inanimate.

Later, the Mimi appears in her kitchen and starts rummaging in the fridge. It asks Catherine her name and when she screams it also screams in fright and runs away. Catherine then phones a friend and asks if they 'know any real Aborigines’.

Jonathan (Aaron Pedersen) arrives, but when he sees the Mimi and it asks him his name he also screams. Summary by Romaine Moreton

Kenny puts on a cassette tape. He moves through the radio station to the sound of the music. It is a speech by Gary Foley with music playing in the background. Kenny pauses to sing the words to the Indigenous people gathered in the radio lounge area. Summary by Romaine Moreton.

In a night-time ceremony around a fire, a small girl is told she is promised to a husband. In the present day, the girl now a young woman soon to be married, Della (Urshula Yovich) packs her gear and climbs into a truck and reverses a few hundred metres to her new homestead.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Two brothers, Burrimmilla (David Gulpilil) and Charlie (Tom E Lewis), travel to their mother’s burial site and return a sacred stone to its rightful place. Summary by Liz McNiven.

Aboriginal kids cling to the fence that keeps them out of the pool area. In the pool, Koorine (Carrie Prosser) races a young girl (Megan Drury). They talk about being like Dawn Fraser and Esther Williams. Koorine’s friend convinces her to sign up for the annual competition and introduces her to Eleanor (Celia Keane), who calls the Aboriginal kids outside the fence ‘a bunch of monkeys’. Koorine talks to her mother (Tess Leahy) about being a swimmer like her heroes. Her mother tells her that swimming is for white fellas.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

It is lockdown in the jail cells. The light falls across inmate Paddy (George Djilaynga) sitting on his bed and singing begins. Paddy looks out through the jail windows searching for the source. A spirit man (Charlie Matjiwi) walks down the corridor of the jail, towards the inmate’s cell. The spirit man enters the jail cell and tells the inmate tomorrow is the day for payback. Paddy clings to the wall, afraid.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Granny telling her story to Ngyamia (Ali Torres) in the kitchen is intercut with the story played out in flashback. We see the young Gilladi (Sabrina Sabaan) led by her Aunty (Annie Watson) to meet her promise husband Waamba (Robert Watson). Granny tells that she was shame (embarrassed), and ran away. We see the young Gilladi visited by her promise husband and watching him working with cattle in the stockyard.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Night-time. White lines disappear into the darkness as a solitary car drives along a lonely stretch of country road. Files stacked beside the driver tell us that he is a field officer for the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody. He is an Indigenous man (David Ngoombujarra). Flashback: a young boy (Geoff Tye) sits beside a parked car, cradling himself. Tears stream down his face. He tells us the reason why he drinks and smokes yarndi (marijuana) – because he looked into the future and realised he didn’t have one. Francis turns to take the boy’s outstretched hand. Suddenly we are back in the present, and Francis’s hand is extending towards his own vehicle in the present tense, and the illusion of the boy is no more. The car speeds off into the night.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

A long dirt road stretches ahead. A watch is held up. Lena (Jamilla Frail) is walking ahead of Vaughn (Luke Carroll). Vaughn on crutches wants to stop because it hurts. Lena doesn’t want to stop. Vaughn asks Lena what she is going to miss from the mission.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Aida (Justine Saunders) comes out of the house to greet Margie (Margaret Harvey) and family Charlie (Luke Elliot), Shannon (Shannon Elliot) and Janaya (Janaya Pender). The family are served ‘hip hop-pety stew’. Margie tells them that they met Bert and Sam. Aunty tells them that those old fellas are dead.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

A young boy lays unconscious on the sand. He is helped to his feet by his mother (Roslyn Trillot-Watson) and father (Ted Hopkins). A white woman (Jo-Anna Lawson) takes young Waxy (Jarred Wall) by the hand, and leads him towards the city skyline of Brisbane. A Warrior (Jeffrey Locke) done up in traditional dress empties two flagons of wine over the heads of the man and woman who drink thirstily. Waxy runs from the white woman back towards his parents but slams into a wall. Back in the present Waxy falls against the wall and then to the floor of the jail. A police officer (Karen Crone) and a priest (Andrew Booth) talk about Waxy. A spirit woman watches the goings on.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Desi Little (Gary Cooper) is in a hospital bed. Nurse Brenda (Rhoda Roberts) tends to him. In the opposite bed is Hugo Hutton (Ben Oxenbould). He is asleep on his back, a cowboy hat covering his face. A small lady in a wheelchair named Esther (Ella-Mei Wong) wheels over to Hugo and takes his hat off to look at Hugo’s face. Hugo, woken by Desi’s laughter, snatches his hat from Esther. Desi and Hugo are being discharged from the hospital, and according to hospital policy, are wheelchair bound. The two jostle each other in the wheel chairs and race to the hospital exit.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

A young albino girl (Melissa Middleton) is walking along a desert road and a truck pulls up beside her. The driver (Rob Wenske) asks if she wants a lift. In flashback, a nun (Sylvia Merrick) reads from the bible and in the background two dark-skinned Aboriginal girls (Amanda Nardoo, Deanne Willets) are sweeping. The girls pause to take in the scene of the albino girl who appears to be the captive audience of the nun.

Summary by Romaine Moreton.

The nearest neighbour (Gerard Kennedy) to Sam (Ngaire Pigram), is somewhat of a recluse and abrupt. Sam knocks on his door and offers him cigarettes in exchange for information about the history of the young girl whose ghost is haunting Sam. Summary by Romaine Moreton

Vinnie (Kelton Pell) is sitting beneath a tree in the park, sketching from an old photograph. Franky (Bruce Hutchison) approaches him with a photo of his own. In the photograph are both their mothers, who it turns out, are sisters, and the two men cousins. Summary by Romaine Moreton

Grace is walking through the sugar cane fields. In flashback the two sisters, playing in the cane fields, place necklaces around each other’s necks, laughing with glee. Grace walks back through the sugar cane. Thunder clouds roll overhead. Loretta strokes the top of her mother’s coffin.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

On the train, Harry Saunders (David Ngoombujarra) introduces himself to Thomas Green (Glenn Shea), his wife Maude (Kylie Belling) and daughter Sophia (Rose Kirby). Maude gets angry with Harry, and tells both men that black men fighting in the War won’t make any difference, and that there still won’t be equality.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Charlie (Wayne Munro) is in the shop. His head is turned by a stranger from the city. Charlie is getting served when he notices the stranger has dropped her wallet. Charlie rings the stranger with the intention of returning her wallet and scoring a date.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

The Tracker (Bradley Byquar) leaves the hut and ventures into the bushland. He climbs a rock face, and we see that it is an ancient art gallery, depicting the ochre-crusted handprints of many people. The Tracker places his hand against one of the ochre prints. The old Aboriginal man (Steve Dodd) sits on the cliff face, a tear rolls down his cheek. Tracker, steadying his hand against the rock face is disturbed by a sudden gust of wind.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Tim (Rhimi Johnson Page) and Leesa (Tameka Ingram) embrace at a bus stop. Tim boards the bus while his two cousins watch on.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

A man tells his daughter he is going to the pub. Melanie (Alyssa McClelland) is waiting for her friends to pick her up and take her to the dance. A car pulls up. Three youths step out and want to purchase petrol. The man tells them that he wants to see the money first. The youths show him the money, after which he refuses them service. Perry (Jie Pittman) hits him with the barrel of a shotgun. Elvis (Luke Carroll) helps himself to the till and whatever else he can scrounge. He is interrupted by Melanie (Alyssa McClelland). The car speeds off along the highway.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Luke (Kirk Page) and Grandma Nina (Freda Glynn) walk into the old mission house. Here, Grandma Nina encounters ghosts of yesteryear. They find out that Grandma Nina’s mother has long passed away. Once again, we are at the waterhole. Luke tells his grandmother how he used to be teased at school when the others called him 'shit skin’, and he never knew why he went so dark over summer.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

Clinton (Michael Tuahine) is sitting forlorn in a bar. He sees a pick-up truck drive by. Driving the truck is Crystal, the woman he met on the beach and whom he has suspected stole his precious laptop. Clinton breaks into a sprint, determined to retrieve his computer. Summary by Romaine Moreton.

Marnie and her boyfriend walk by the TAB. They stop and observe Marnie’s father inside. Marnie and her boyfriend are sitting in a car. They talk about where they are going and what they want to do. Summary by Romaine Moreton

Cabs crawl along the city street, on the lookout for two Aboriginal youths suspected of bashing a fellow taxi driver. Lance (Gavin Ritchie) and Murray (Shane O’Mara) run up an alley way and scale a fence to get away from the taxi chasing them. They run into a safe house, where they tidy themselves up, before hitting the streets again. Summary by Romaine Moreton