Aboriginal voices | Groote Broadcasting

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.

Oral tradition sits at the heart of First Nations cultures in Australia.

Oral tradition sits at the heart of First Nations cultures in Australia—an intellectual, spiritual, and cultural archive maintained not on paper, but in memory, voice, and lived practice. For tens of thousands of years, long before written language was introduced to the continent, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples preserved vast bodies of knowledge through spoken word, song, dance, story, ceremony, art, and Country itself. These traditions are not simply stories;

Groote Broadcasting

Nov 262 min read

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

World Toilet Day: Not a joke, a lifeline.

Every year on 19 November, the world pauses for World Toilet Day—a date that might invite easy jokes, but in reality demands sober attention. There is nothing humorous about the global sanitation crisis. It is one of the most persistent, deadly, and underreported humanitarian emergencies on the planet. Today, over 3.5 billion people live without safe sanitation. Nearly 500 million still defecate in the open—behind bushes, in rivers, on roadsides. In crowded slums, families sh

Groote Broadcasting

Nov 191 min read

Ten Canoes (2006)

Ten Canoes (2006) is a landmark, a cinematic circle back to the origins of storytelling on this continent. Directed by Rolf de Heer in close collaboration with the Yolŋu community of Ramingining, and guided by senior custodian Peter Djigirr, it stands as one of the most culturally significant works in Australian film history. But beyond its importance, Ten Canoes is also wildly engaging, surprisingly funny, visually gorgeous, and told with a confidence that only comes from st

Groote Broadcasting

Nov 172 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

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

Groote Eylandt: A Living Sanctuary of the Gulf.

Off the eastern coast of the Northern Territory, in the heart of the Gulf of Carpentaria, lies Groote Eylandt — a place of astonishing biodiversity and ecological vitality. For those who’ve walked its mangrove-fringed shores or wandered through its monsoon forests, it’s immediately clear that Groote isn’t just another tropical island — it’s a living sanctuary where land, sea, and culture converge in perfect balance. Groote Eylandt’s ecosystems are as varied as they are rich.

Groote Broadcasting

Oct 272 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

Mervyn Bishop: Framing Truth Through the Lens.

Mervyn Bishop is one of Australia’s most groundbreaking photographers — a trailblazer whose images reshaped how the nation saw itself. Born in 1945 in Brewarrina, New South Wales, Bishop is a proud Ngemba man whose life’s work has been dedicated to telling stories of truth, resilience, and identity through the power of the camera. In 1963, Bishop began his journey in photography when he joined The Sydney Morning Herald as a cadet — making history as Australia’s first Aborigin

Groote Broadcasting

Oct 202 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

Gary Foley: The Firebrand of Aboriginal Activism.

Dr. Gary Foley (born 1950) is one of the most influential and outspoken figures in the history of Aboriginal activism in Australia — a man whose life’s work has challenged the nation to confront its deepest injustices. Born in Grafton, New South Wales, and a proud Gumbaynggirr man, Foley came of age during an era of immense social upheaval. His voice would soon become one of the defining ones in the modern Aboriginal rights movement. Foley moved to Sydney in the late 1960s, w

Groote Broadcasting

Oct 132 min read

Blak History Month 🎙Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920–1993): Poet, Activist, Educator, Trailblazer.

Born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska at Bulimba, Brisbane in 1920, her home was on North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah). Oodgeroo Noonuccal was...

Groote Broadcasting

Jul 182 min read