This clip shows three Indigenous participants in the 2005 Tattersall’s Finke Desert Race describing their involvement. It begins with a map of the route – between Alice Springs and Finke – as filmmaker Warwick Thornton describes the route in voice-over. It then shows Bernard Singer, who says racing desert buggies has become like an addiction, and Jamie Nyaningu, who wants to act as a role model for Indigenous children. The clip has subtitles and includes footage of the Race and of Thornton fixing his dirt bike for the Race.

Educational value points

• The clip features three Indigenous competitors in the Finke Desert Race describing their motivations for being involved. Bernard Singer, who says racing is addictive, took it up when his football career ended. Jamie Nyaningu hopes that his involvement will encourage Indigenous youth to compete in rather than just watch the Race and Warwick Thornton is a motorbike rider who had always wanted to compete in what is clearly a gruelling and thrilling experience.
• The 460-km two-day Race, held on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, is an off-road car, motorcycle and buggy race through desert country from south of Alice Springs to the small Aputula (Finke) community and back again. Up to 10,000 spectators camp along the track as more than 300 motorcycles and 90 cars compete at speeds of up to 200 km per h over rough terrain marked by corrugations, dips and rises, collectively known as 'whoops’.
• Top racers take about 4 h to complete the Finke Desert Race, which has been called the richest and most difficult off-road Race in the southern hemisphere and which now awards two prizes annually, one for bikes and one for cars and buggies, each of $10,000. Local businesses have ownership of the event, which generates publicity for them and income for the region.
• Warwick Thornton (Kaytetye), featured in the clip, is an Indigenous filmmaker. He is the director and writer of Green Bush, winner of Best Short Film in the Panorama section of the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival. Thornton’s mother was one of the founders of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) and as a young man Thornton worked on a number of the organisation’s radio and film productions.
• Black and Dusty is part of a documentary television series called Nganampa Anwernekenhe produced by CAAMA since 1987. Nganampa Anwernekenhe means 'ours’ in the Pitjanjatjara and Arrernte languages, and the series aims to contribute to the preservation of Indigenous languages and cultures. It gives a voice to Indigenous people by enabling subjects to tell their stories from an Indigenous perspective.

A local event that some of the older riders use to get the younger generations motivated and involved in something. In this case, it is a race across the desert.

Black and Dusty Synopsis

A documentary about the Indigenous participants of the 2005 Tattersalls Finke Desert Race.

Curator's Notes

The Finke Desert Race tests both the body and the mind in putting the contestants through a gruelling race from Alice Springs to the community of Finke 229 km away. The contestants stay overnight and then do the return trip the next day. The race itself may seem innocuous, but the older participants speak of inspiring younger people to get involved in something and life itself.

There is lots of footage of vehicles tearing through the dusty outback, and its great to watch a film of this genre and hear Indigenous languages – in this case Southern Arrernte and Luritja. A film for those addicted to speed and dust.

Notes by Romaine Morton