 |
Melanie Hogan | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Documentary filmmaker |
| Years active | Since 2004 |
| Known for | Documentaries about life in remote Aboriginal communities |
| Notable work | "Kanyini" |
Melanie Hogan is a film director and producer of Australian documentaries. Her directorial debut Kanyini premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2006.
Since 2004, Hogan has made documentaries in remote Aboriginal communities, exposing the challenges they face.
Her first documentary, Kanyini (2006), was distributed in Australia by Hopscotch Films. It won the 2006 Discovery Channel Best Documentary Award, the Independent Spirit Inside Film Award, and the Best Documentary Award at the London Australian Film Festival (2007).
Hogan's other documentary films, Yajilarra (2008) and Tristan (2011), both premiered at the United Nations in New York and Government House, Canberra with Australia's Governor General, Quentin Bryce, as host.
Between 2009 and 2012, Hogan wrote, edited, directed, and produced an online project for the Australian Government called the Stolen Generations Testimonies. The site tells the stories of Aborigines who were taken from their families and known as the Stolen Generations. [1]
Kanyini is her attempt to connect fellow Australians with the story of Australia's past and present from an Anangu perspective, in the hope Australia can move forward in proper friendship with Australia's Indigenous peoples. The film's full title is Kanyini: 40,000 years of culture, one philosophy that connects us all.
Kanyini tells the story of one Aboriginal man from Pitjantjatjara country called Bob Randall and the separation he experienced from his country, his family, his traditional lore and his spirituality since he was a young child. [2]
Kanyini won the Independent Spirit Award as well as the National Geographic Best Documentary Award at the Australian Inside Film Awards the year the film was released.
After Kanyini was released, Hogan went on to develop an education program called Yarnup around Australia, which attempted to connect Australian high school students with their local Indigenous elders.
Still committed to connecting with Indigenous Australians, Hogan then directed her next documentary in the Kimberley in 2008 on the subject of the women of Fitzroy Crossing and their campaign against alcohol abuse in their community. [3] The film’s title was devised by the local women themselves: ‘Yajilarra’ which means ‘to dream’ in the Bunuba language.
The project came about because the federal sex discrimination officer at the time, Elizabeth Broderick, had heard about what the local women, led by June Oscar AO and Emily Carter, had done to reduce the devastating effects of excessive alcohol consumption in their Fitzroy Valley communities and she wanted their story to be told to the world. She contacted Hogan to direct the film.
In 2011, the women of a community requested that filmmaker Hogan create a new documentary focusing on children affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), a condition caused by excessive alcohol consumption during pregnancy. The objective of this film was to raise awareness about the risks of prenatal alcohol exposure and to inform the global audience about the necessary support for children with FASD to lead fulfilling lives despite their disabilities. Titled Tristan, the film depicts the challenges faced by a 12-year-old boy living with FASD and underscores the efforts of the Fitzroy Valley community in addressing this condition. [4] The documentary made its debut at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 2012.
In 2019, Hogan appeared in Magic as herself. [5]
Hogan launched another project in 2011: an Online Museum devoted to capturing the testimonies of Australia's Stolen Generations. The museum was launched at Parliament House to commemorate the 4th anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations. Hogan has been capturing testimonies since 2009 inspired by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. By 2012, 46 testimonies had been collected from around Australia.
This children’s book was inspired by the Kanyini documentary. [7]
| Film | Year | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kanyini | 2009 | National Geographic Best Documentary Film Award | Won [8] |
| Kanyini | 2009 | Glenfiddich Independent Spirit Award | Won [8] |
The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1967, although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s.
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Archibald William Roach was an Australian singer-songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. His wife and musical partner was the singer Ruby Hunter (1955–2010).
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James Paul Fitzpatrick is an Australian paediatrician notable for his advocacy of rural and indigenous health issues, particularly his work with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Kanyini is a word in the Pitjantjatjara dialect spoken by Indigenous Australians. It is the principle of connectedness through caring and responsibility that underpins Aboriginal life. Kanyini is a connectedness to tjukurrpa, ngura, walytja (kinship), and kurunpa. Kanyini is nurtured through caring and practicing responsibility for all things. The concept of Kanyini is associated with the Northern Territory and the Yankunytjatjara people, one of the traditional land owner groups of Uluru.
Robert James Randall, also known as Uncle Bob, was an Aboriginal Australian elder, singer and community leader. He was a member of the Stolen Generations and became an elder of the Yankunytjatjara people from Central Australia. He was the 1999 NAIDOC Person of the Year. He is known for his 1970 song, "My Brown Skin Baby ".
Lisa (Marie) Bellear was an Indigenous Australian poet, photographer, activist, spokeswoman, dramatist, comedian and broadcaster. She was a Goenpul woman of the Noonuccal people of Minjerribah, Queensland. Her uncles were Bob Bellear, Australia's first Indigenous judge, and Sol Bellear who helped to found the Aboriginal Housing Corporation in Redfern in 1972.
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