NAIDOC Week 2026 runs from Sunday 5 July until Sunday 12 July. To mark this year's theme, Fifty Years of Deadly, we've curated a selection of Screen NSW-supported First Nations documentaries, TV series and feature films for your NAIDOC Week watchlist.
From stories that celebrate Country, culture and community to powerful documentaries and acclaimed dramas, these titles offer an opportunity to learn, reflect and connect with First Nations stories and perspectives.
Screen NSW acknowledges First Nations peoples and honour their ongoing traditions as the first artists, the first storytellers and caretakers of the world's oldest living cultures.
Explore the selection below and discover something new this NAIDOC Week.
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Barrumbi Kids (2022)
Barrumbi Kids tells the coming-of-age story of Tomias (Nick Bonson) and Dahlia (Caitlin Hordern) - two best friends growing up in a magical and remote Northern Territory community. Through fishing, dancing and schooling, the children learn about themselves, each other and living in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultures. The heart-warming series was filmed in Beswick (Wugularr), Barunga, Katherine and Bitter Springs on the lands of the Jawoyn, Dagoman, Wardaman and Mangarrayi peoples in the Northern Territory. Based on The Barrumbi Kids series of novels by Leonie Norrington.
Stream now on Netflix
Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra (2020)
Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra takes the viewer through Bangarra’s birth and spectacular growth over 30 years, telling the story of how three young Aboriginal brothers – Stephen, David and Russell Page – turned the newly born dance group into one of Australia’s leading performing arts companies. Through the eyes of the Page brothers and company alumni, Firestarter explores the loss and reclaiming of culture, the burden of intergenerational trauma and crucially, the extraordinary power of art as a messenger for social change and healing.
The documentary features remarkable archival footage and interviews with those integral to Bangarra’s establishment, including co-founders Carole Johnson, Cheryl Stone along with a number of former dancers and creatives.
Stream free on SBS On Demand
Kindred (2023)
When Wodi Wodi woman Gillian Moody and Wonnarua man Adrian Russell Wills met making their first short film together, little did they know that 25 years later they would be best friends. The pair turned to each other in navigating the emotional rollercoaster of being adopted into white families, and when connecting back with their bloodlines.
Kindred explores the importance of discovering your place in the world and realising that home and love truly can be found in the people and places your heart connects to.
Stream free on SBS On Demand
Mystery Road: Origin (2018 – ongoing):
Mystery Road: Origin delves into the early years of fan favourite Detective Jay Swan with proud Nyikina man Mark Coles Smith cast as Young Jay.
It’s 1999, and Constable Jay Swan, a charismatic young officer arrives at his new station. Fresh from the city and tipped for big things, Jay might be the new copper, but he’s not new to this town. His estranged father Jack lives here, as does the woman who will change his life forever, Mary.
Mystery Road: Origin explores how a tragic death, an epic love, and the brutal reality of life as a police officer straddling two worlds, form the indelible mould out of which will emerge, Detective Jay Swan.
Stream Season 1 and 2 free on ABC iview
One Mind, One Heart (2024)
One Mind, One Heart uncovers the extraordinary story of the three landmark Yirrkala Bark petitions that sparked the flame towards recognition of Aboriginal rights. In August 1963, two bark petitions – traditional documents prepared and signed by Yolngu people – were sent to the Australian Parliament and became the first documentary recognition of Indigenous people in Australian law. When a fourth bark petition is found in Derby, Western Australia in 2022, the community begin the ceremony of guiding its journey back to Yolngu Country. The repatriation provides the opportunity to track the long political campaign – through petition, song, dance, campaigning – to keep culture strong and to have a voice for country.
Stream free on SBS On Demand
Reckless (2025)
When feuding siblings June (Tasma Walton) and Charlie (Hunter Page-Lochard) cover up a deadly hit-and-run in their hometown of Fremantle, their lives spiral wildly out of control. As the lies pile up, so do the consequences and soon, everyone in town has something to lose.
Stream free on SBS On Demand.
Skin in the Game (2025)
Marlee Silva, a proud Gamilaroi-Dunghutti woman, sports commentator and ‘Rugby League tragic’ embarks on a personal journey to examine why the sport needs to drive much-needed change when it comes to women and violence in Australia.
Stream free on SBS On Demand
Sweet Country (2017)
Inspired by real events, Sweet Country is a period western set in 1929 in the outback of the Northern Territory, Australia. When Aboriginal stockman Sam (Hamilton Morris) kills white station owner Harry March (Ewen Leslie) in self-defence, Sam and his wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey-Furber) go on the run. They are pursued across the outback, through glorious but harsh desert country.Sergeant Fletcher (Bryan Brown) leads the posse with the help of Aboriginal tracker Archie (Gibson John) and local landowners Fred Smith (Sam Neill) and Mick Kennedy (Thomas M. Wright). Fletcher is desperate to capture Sam and put him on trial for murder – but Sam is an expert bushman and he has little difficulty outlasting them. Eventually, for the health of his pregnant wife, Sam decides to give himself up. He is put on trial in the courtroom of Judge Taylor (Matt Day). But will justice be served?
Stream free on ABC iView
The Australian Wars (2022)
There are more than ten thousand monuments across the country that honour the war dead. But what of the bloody battles fought on our home soil, in our longest-running war that established the Australian nation? In this landmark three-part documentary series, filmmaker Rachel Perkins journeys across the country, to give voice to the story of The Australian Wars. And once given voice, it will change the narrative of our nation.
Stream free on SBS On Demand
The New Boy (2023)
When an Aboriginal child arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery run by a renegade nun, the new boy’s presence disturbs a delicately balanced world in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.
Available to stream on Netflix, or available to rent or buy on Apple TV and Prime Video.
Total Control (2019-2024)
Outsider turned kingmaker, Alex Irving (Deborah Mailman), is at the centre of power in the nation’s capital but what she’s about to discover will test her like never before. Can Alex achieve the change she’s been fighting for or will it cost her everything?
Stream Season 1 – 3 for free on ABC iview
Wolfram (2026)
Set some five years after Sweet Country, Wolfram continues our frontier story. After meeting child miners Max and Kid, Philomac decides they should escape their white masters’ brutality by running away into desert country.
More information on the film is available here.
YURLU | COUNTRY (2025)
A vivid ode to Country and an intimate portrait of an Aboriginal elder’s final year as he strives to preserve his culture and heal his homeland, scarred by the largest contaminated site in the Southern Hemisphere.
Banjima Elder, Maitland Parker, calls his Yurlu (homelands) “Poison Country” – a haunting, toxic truth etched into his body. Set against the breathtaking yet contaminated landscapes of Western Australia’s Pilbara region, YURLU | COUNTRY lays bare the devastating impact of the Wittenoom asbestos mines, where millions of tonnes of waste laced with deadly asbestos fibres have poisoned both land and people. It’s Australia’s largely unknown Chernobyl-scale disaster and it’s on Banjima lands.
As Maitland battles mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused by asbestos exposure, his resolve to fight for his homeland and future generations only strengthens. Through striking cinematography and deeply personal storytelling, the film stands as a testament to the resilience of Banjima and their unbreakable bond with Country. Maitland and his family’s fight for justice, cultural survival, and environmental restoration will inspire, enrage, and catalyse.
This is Maitland’s legacy. YURLU | COUNTRY will honour and immortalise it.
Available to rent or buy on Apple TV and Prime Video.
Image: Mystery Road: Origin Season 2 – Behind the scenes. L-R: Wayne Blair (Director), Mark Coles Smith as Detective Jay Swan, Jub Clerc (Director). © 2025 Bunya Productions