Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts

Explore powerful stories at the intersection of history, culture, and music—from Aboriginal cricket pioneers and war heroes to legendary albums by Hendrix, Miles Davis, and Gurrumul. This blog dives deep into First Nations resilience, iconic protest music, and untold truths that shaped Australia and the world. Engaging, thoughtful, and unapologetically real—where powerful voices from the past meet today's social conversation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this page contains images and names of deceased persons.

Mystery Road (2013): A Slow-Burning Outback Noir With a Pulse as Steady as the Land It Stands On.

Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road is one of those rare Australian films that feels both timeless and urgent—an outback noir that draws from westerns, crime thrillers, and Indigenous storytelling, yet stands firmly in a league of its own. With Sen writing, directing, shooting, and editing the film, this is auteur cinema at its most confident: precise, meditative, and brimming with quiet power. At the film’s centre is Aaron Pedersen, delivering a career-defining performance as Detective

Groote Broadcasting

Nov 242 min read

Electric Fields: Inma [2023]

When Electric Fields released Inma in 2023, it felt like a cultural and sonic lightning strike — a record that shimmered with futurism while remaining grounded in the oldest living cultures on Earth. The duo — Zaachariaha Fielding, a proud Anangu man from Mimili in the APY Lands, and producer Michael Ross, a classically trained electronic alchemist — have long defied easy categorisation. But with Inma, they distilled their vision perfectly: a radiant fusion of traditional son

Groote Broadcasting

Nov 82 min read

Ivan Sen: The Visionary Storyteller of Two Worlds.

Ivan Sen is one of Australia’s most distinctive cinematic voices — a filmmaker whose lens captures both the vastness of the Australian landscape and the quiet, often painful introspection of those who inhabit it. A proud Indigenous storyteller of Gamilaroi descent, Sen’s work stands at the intersection of identity, belonging, and the struggle for self-definition in modern Australia. Over more than two decades, he has reshaped how Indigenous stories are told — rejecting stereo

Groote Broadcasting

Nov 52 min read

Harold Blair (1924–1976)

Harold Blair (1924–1976) was a trailblazer — a gifted tenor whose voice transcended the concert hall to become a beacon of pride and possibility for Indigenous Australians. Born on the Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve in Queensland, Blair’s journey from a childhood marked by poverty and segregation to the world’s grand stages stands as one of the great Australian stories of resilience, talent, and activism. Blair’s remarkable voice was first noticed while he worked as a stockman

Groote Broadcasting

Nov 32 min read

Thelma Plum: Better In Blak [2019].

When 'Better in Blak' was released in 2019, it felt less like a debut album and more like a declaration — a bold, unflinching statement from an artist who had already found her voice and was ready to use it. Thelma Plum, a proud Gamilaraay woman from Brisbane, delivered one of the most powerful and emotionally honest records in recent Australian music history — a work that seamlessly threads together vulnerability, defiance, and self-discovery, all wrapped in shimmering pop p

Groote Broadcasting

Nov 12 min read

Emma Donovan: Dawn [2014].

Emma Donovan’s debut solo album Dawn (2014) is aptly named — it feels like first light breaking over a long, shadowed landscape. After years of lending her extraordinary voice to projects like The Black Arm Band and The Putbacks, Dawn marked Donovan’s arrival as a solo artist with something to say and the power to make you feel it. What she delivered was a soul record steeped in truth — personal, political, and deeply human. Right from the opening track, “Black Woman,” Donova

Groote Broadcasting

Oct 252 min read

Yilila: Manila Manila [2005]

When Yilila Band released Manilamanila in 2005, it felt like someone had plugged Arnhem Land straight into an amplifier. The album is a riotous, joyful collision of tradition and innovation — a vivid testament to how Indigenous music can evolve without losing sight of its roots. It’s funky, fierce, and defiantly original, the kind of record that rewires your expectations of what “Australian rock” can sound like. Yilila hail from Numbulwar, a remote community on the Gulf of Ca

Groote Broadcasting

Oct 182 min read

The Aboriginal Arts Board: A Turning Point in Cultural Recognition.

In 1973, amid a wave of political and social change in Australia, the Whitlam Government established the Aboriginal Arts Board — the...

Groote Broadcasting

Sep 292 min read