Welcome to my Country

Co-written and created by writer/ director Malinda Rutter and Jeremy Perrott, this film transcends the cultural sensitivities of our aboriginal first nations people while weaving their stories and heritage into a film.

There are four integral reasons this film is regarded as the first of its kind.

1. Blackfisch is an Indigenous film company connected to mob and country. They could work with the Elders directly; without that, there wouldn't have been access to their country.

2. All filmed during COVID, Blackfisch could go to locations and work with the local mobs where conventional film units would not have been allowed due to the fragility of viral infection.

Being aboriginal means being part of the family and understanding the importance of ancestors and the respect paid to their ongoing existence.

2. Knowing this, the script was written to engage the viewer and help them understand that the longest-living culture on the planet has a story to share.

On welcoming us to country, the Elders all say.."Welcome to my country, and meet my ancestors",

Rocks, trees, rivers, ocean, animals, plants, and all that surrounds us.

This is the element that makes the film most special and unique.

We are not being welcomed to country in a general way.

For the first time, an Elder of the region welcomes us to their country where their ancestors live.

3. The "Welcoming to Country" embraces Elders both from the land and those living there while representing family (Aunty....from Litchfield and Uncle from the Daintree to modern day (Uncle Noel Butler and Aunty Margaret)..diverse and each different, but connected, related to land and each other.

To tell the story, Blackfisch also chose to shoot each location using a drone camera,

ensuring another level of Aboriginal insight and culture and brief was woven into the storytelling.

Elders will tell you to look to the sky, see the stars, and you will see the earth.

What you see up there is reflected down here.

Dramatic footage of our Australian landscapes was captured through the drone.