Documentary Ablaze reveals civil rights chief Invoice Onus might need been the primary Aboriginal filmmaker

Bill Onus was a masterful boomerang thrower, showman, and revered Aboriginal civil rights activist, but a new documentary adds another layer to the legend: first Aboriginal filmmaker.

In Ablaze, opera singer and academic Tiriki Onus traces the origins and content of a recently unearthed short film from 1946 that appears to have been made by his grandfather.

“I think the biggest revelation to me during this entire journey has been the strength and resilience our communities need,” Tiriki told ABC Arts.

“The fact that I am here, that we are telling these stories – they are passed down in our families as myths about the great people who were our ancestors.”

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Ablaze premiered online at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 16 and was directed by Tiriki and Alec Morgan (the latter co-directed the groundbreaking 1983 documentary Lousy Little Sixpence).

In addition to the 1946 nine-and-a-half-minute black-and-white film, the 90-minute documentary is filled with animation and additional footage that speaks of Bill’s artistic and political achievements – including his unparalleled public speaking skills during the Victorian battle for the 1967 referendum.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are cautioned that the following includes pictures and names of the deceased.

William Townsend “Bill” Onus Jr (Yorta Yorta and Wiradjuri) was born on the Cummeragunja Reservation in 1906 and died at the age of 61 one year after the 1967 referendum.

Delivered: MIFF / Onus family

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Morgan says, “I think we both felt that Bill was left out of history … and my theory is that Bill was left out because he was so radical about what he was saying – and even what he was at the time said is really relevant today.

“[We made the film] to rightly bring him back into Australian history. “

‘I was blown away’

Morgan is a filmmaker and academic who has worked in archives for decades, focusing on indigenous film.

In 2013, a curator at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) showed him a short film with no clear recordings or sound associated with it (the voice-over role had been lost).

Morgan quickly recognized Bill and his brother Eric Onus in the film, with Eric and his wife Wynne appearing in an excerpt from a play that shows Aboriginal people in chains.

“I just thought so [the play] was amazing, I’d never seen anything like it, “says Morgan.

“There was real history in that 10-minute footage.”

Tiriki, the son of artist Lin Onus, never met his grandfather, but his first operatic role was played by Bill in Deborah Cheetham’s Pecan Summer (pictured here). (

Delivered: MIFF

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Tiriki recalls Morgan calling him to say, “Did you know your grandfather was probably the first Aboriginal filmmaker? I found this film.”

Tiriki knew that his grandfather had made films but, like the rest of his family, had thought that the films had all been lost in a trailer fire in the 1950s.

Morgan brought the film to Melbourne to show Tiriki.

“I was overwhelmed because it was unlike anything I had ever seen, especially from that time,” says Tiriki.

The 1946 film contains footage of Aboriginal people from the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, including the famous Gunditjmara warrior and soldier of the Second World War, Reg Saunders, and Pastor Doug Nicholls.

“Here was a very different picture of the Aborigines in Melbourne, showing people in what I think was a very strength-based dialogue,” says Tiriki.

“Yes, it showed the enormous poverty and what the people were fighting against, but at the same time this self-determination, this drive, was under the film.”

Morgan and Tiriki embarked on a six-year journey – extended in part by COVID-19 but mainly funding problems – to determine the origins and authorship of the 1946 film.

“It was difficult to have to fight for so long to get all of the funding and everything together … but it gave us all that time to really dive deep into this whole detective story,” says Tiriki.

“A more complete picture of Bill”

Morgan says a postdoctoral research fellowship gave him the time to research and trace the origins of the 1946 film.

A major early breakthrough, however, was Tiriki’s discovery of a series of photographs and letters in his grandfather’s suitcase that had undeniable links to elements of the 1946 footage.

Tiriki and Morgan also had access to Australian intelligence files from the years he monitored Bill and other Aboriginal filmmakers and activists.

“We found that there were more pieces Bill was involved in that were out there, [and footage] that survived. And we were able to get a more complete picture of Bill, “says Tiriki.

Ablaze also covers Bill’s marriage to communist Mary McLintock Kelly (pictured here), his role in the very first Moomba, and his opposition to British nuclear tests on Aboriginal land.

Delivered: MIFF / Onus family

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After quitting his boomerang thrower job on a touring show in the 1930s, Bill turned his attention to filmmaking – and landed his first film appearance on Charles Chauvel’s 1936 film Uncivilized.

But in 1939 he put his cinematic ambitions on hold to return home to the Cummeragunja Reservation to help with the walk-off, one of the earliest and most significant Aboriginal resistance efforts.

After the walk-off, Bill and his family settled in Fitzroy, where he and Pastor Doug Nicholls, one of the founders of the Aboriginal Advancement League (of which Bill became president in 1967), began campaigning for Aboriginal rights.

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Während seine Bitte, die Situation zu dokumentieren, vom Labour-Schwergewicht Arthur Calwell abgelehnt wurde, schrieb Bill das Szenario in ein Stück über den Pilbara-Streik mit dem Titel White Justice, das als Zusammenarbeit zwischen der Aboriginal Advancement League und Melbournes New Theatre entstand.

Dies ist das Stück, das im Film von 1946 erscheint.

Bill hatte Pläne, seinen Film in Kinos zu vertreiben, aber Ablaze deutet an, dass Agenten des Commonwealth Investigation Service die Verleihfirmen unter Druck gesetzt haben, den Film nicht zu veröffentlichen.

Die Filmemacher sind sich nicht sicher, wie der Film viele Jahre später in der NFSA landete.

„Diese Geschichten gehören an Ort und Stelle“

Ablaze ist ein Beweis für die Bedeutung von Archiven, insbesondere für indigene Gemeinschaften.

“Ich liege die meisten Nächte wach und denke über die Sachen nach, die noch in den Archiven sind”, sagt Tiriki.

„Wir sind an einem Punkt angekommen, an dem wir [still] have our elders who are connected to so many of these stories and still have these memories … [and] we have archives that we can interpret.

“There is so much knowledge there that we can regain.”

Bill hosted Alcheringa, a 12-part documentary series on ABC TV in 1962.

Delivered: ACMI

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But he says that this complaint and filing work is often left to the indigenous people.

“This is one of the reasons I am so passionate about intercultural collaboration in a job like Ablaze and the work I do around the world – because I think we can all play a real role together.

“And when we find more ways for allies and non-indigenous people to amplify the voices of indigenous peoples, we will be able to recreate many of these archives and give them back to our communities and be able to celebrate together. “

In Ablaze we see Tiriki bring his grandfather’s short film to the Warralong community, where he shares it with the descendants of the Pilbara strikers.

He told ABC Arts that his goal is “to empower and give back to my mother and fatherlands and communities because I think these stories belong in their place”.

Go ahead with the story

From walking shows and stages to movies and his Belgrave shop selling Aboriginal arts and crafts, Bill believed in the importance of art to indigenous rights and cultural preservation.

“I think that was a really fascinating part of that process,” says Tiriki. “[To see how Bill and others were] To take the practices and forms of the colonized environment and turn them to his own ends.

“Bill and others recognized the stage as a place that could be made safe – but more than that, it could be turned into a weapon.”

Tiriki had three children while filming Ablaze, and the film begins with him wrapping his eldest child in a biganga (opossum skin coat).

Tiriki has learned how to make bigangas using traditional methods, and his daughter was the first child in his family in seven generations to be wrapped in a cloak at birth.

“That was passed on from my father to me and from his father to him, this promise that one day we would make cloaks again … if we continued the story, it would come back,” he says.

“[The documentary is] an exceptional opportunity to come back and be a part of this story, “says Tiriki. (

Delivered: MIFF

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Before Ablaze, Bill’s protégé Bruce McGuinness (Blackfire, 1972) was considered the first Aboriginal filmmaker.

Tiriki says: “We have clearly shown that Bill made films in the 1940s and 50s … [be the first Aboriginal filmmaker] because I wonder what else is in the archives? “

“People often value the idea of ​​being the first – but I don’t really care. I’m so excited about the idea of ​​heritage, community … and being part of something much bigger. “

Ablaze is Tiriki’s first film, but it won’t be his last as he continues to work with Morgan.

“There are many more stories that need to be told.”

Ablaze will be streamed from August 16-22 via MIFF Play.

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