Grace Barrand is a Screen and Cultural Studies student at the University of Melbourne and a recent volunteer at the NFSA’s Melbourne office.
Did you know that there were at least three First Nations actors in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones? It was a discovery made while assessing materials relating to Australia’s first community and cable TV station, CTV-1, under the guidance of Senior Television Archivist Simon Smith. These materials were donated by Darren Gray, who also published a book on the history of the station (The Story of CTV-1, 2012).
CTV-1 celebrated the everyday lives of Redfern locals and allowed them to tell their unique stories. In telling these stories, CTV-1 emphasised the extraordinary experience within ordinary life. Like the local Indigenous actor with a small speaking role in a Star Wars movie.
