Principal speaker
Nicole Ma
Other speakers
Film screening: 'Putuparri and the Rainmakers', following the screening is a Q&A with Nicole Ma, moderated by Tina O'Keefe.
Griffith University is committed to reconciliation and creating a brighter future for all. As our nation considers an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, we strive to be a place where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel valued and respected. Our mission is to listen and act on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in our community and to use their knowledge, experience and perspectives to enrich our learning, teaching, research and community engagement.
Our screening of Nicole Ma's 2015 documentary Putuparri and the Rainmakers, speaks deeply to how we think about reconciliation-a shared process of acknowledgement and reconnection, valuing ancestral knowledge and respecting traditional culture in our institution. Following the screening is a Q&A with Nicole Ma, moderated by Tina O'Keefe.
Film Synopsis
Ten years in the making, the film is an extraordinary eyewitness account of the living traditions of Putuparri's people.
The film spans 20 transformative years in the life of Tom "Putuparri" Lawford as he navigates the deep chasm between his Western upbringing and his determination to keep his traditional culture alive. Director Nicole Ma documents Putuparri's journey, travelling with him and his family on numerous occasions to Kurtal, a sacred waterhole in the Great Sandy Desert where they ritually make rain. Kurtal is a site of deep spiritual significance for Putuparri and his family and the subject of a long term native title claim over the area.
Tom "Putuparri" Lawford is a man caught between two worlds: his future as a leader of his people, reconnecting with his ancestral lands and shouldering his responsibility to pass this knowledge on to the next generation; and both his past and present in modern society, where he battles with alcoholism and domestic violence.
Set against the backdrop of this long fight for ownership of traditional lands Putuparri and the Rainmakers is an emotional, visually breathtaking story of love, hope and the survival of Aboriginal law and culture against all odds.
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RSVP on or before Tuesday 30 May 2023 13.56 pm, by email m.ngaluafe@griffith.edu.au , or by phone - , or via https://forms.office.com/r/dVDZKZrm9L