Episodes
The series was first transmitted in Australia from 12 October to 2 November 2008. A total of seven episodes were filmed, no further episodes have been announced.
| # | Title | Air date | Synopsis | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They Have Come to Stay | New South Wales (1788–1824) | 12 October 2008 | The arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney in 1788. Curious of each other, friendships form, but relations between the two races soon sour as settlers spread out across the land. Focuses on the relationship between Bennelong and Governor Arthur Phillip, as well as the lives of Pemulwuy, William Dawes and Patyegarang, and Windradyne. |
| 2 | Her Will to Survive | Tasmania (1803–1880) | 14 October 2008 | The land grab moves south to Tasmania. In an effort to protect real estate prices, Tasmanian Aboriginal people are removed from the island. The Government enlists an Englishman for the job, who is helped by a young Aboriginal woman Truganini. |
| 3 | Freedom For Our Lifetime | Victoria (1860–1890) | 19 October 2008 | The threat of extinction hovers over the first Australians of Victoria after the city of Melbourne is founded. Follows the establishment of mission stations in Victoria such as Coranderrk. Explores the lives of Wurundjeri clan leaders Simon Wonga and William Barak. |
| 4 | There Is No Other Law | Central Australia (1878-1847) | 21 October 2008 | Explores the history of white settlement in Central Australia and the stories of homicidal police officer Constable Willshire, as he brings mayhem to the Arrernte nation. Authorities turn a blind eye before the telegraph operator Frank Gillen stops him. |
| 5 | Unhealthy Government Experiment | Western Australia (1897–1937) | 26 October 2008 | European settlement spreads to Western Australia and is met with much conflict as explored through the stories of Jandamarra. The Stolen Generations is explored through the stories of Chief Protector of Aborigines A. O. Neville and many children including Gladys Gilligan and many others. |
| 6 | Strength to Stand a Long Time | South-east Australia (1937–1967) | 28 October 2008 | Chronicles the beginnings of the Aboriginal rights movement, as explored through Yorta Yorta man, William Cooper and his foundation of the Australian Aborigines League in 1933. Also explores the Maralinga nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s and the life of AFL footballer Douglas Nicholls. |
| 7 | We Are No Longer Shadows | Queensland & Torres Strait Islands (1967–1992) | 2 November 2008 | Explores the story of Eddie Koiki Mabo and Aboriginal land rights in the late 20th century, and the high court overturn of the legal fiction of terra nullius which characterised Australian law with regards to land and title. |
Read more about this topic: First Australians
Famous quotes containing the word episodes:
“What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow-men’s existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history?”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)