The Dreaming

About Aboriginal Nations

Aboriginal Nations Australia was established in the nineties and is an independent animation company whose objective was to employ and train Aboriginal animators to work on the production of a series of Dreaming stories selected from different parts of Australia.

The Dreaming has different meanings for different Aboriginal groups. The Dreaming can be seen as the embodiment of Aboriginal creation which gives meaning to everything: the essence of Aboriginal belief about creation, spiritual and physical existence. It establishes the rules governing relations between the people, the land and all things for Aboriginal people.

The stories from The Dreaming were sourced from many Aboriginal communities, and the permission to tell them and for them to be animated by Aboriginal Nations was obtained from community elders and community councils. During this process Aboriginal Nations developed a cultural protocol to ensure that the copyright for each story was retained by the communities. The following is the protocol:

1. That the stories are recognised as a ‘body of knowledge’ that is many thousands of years old.
2. That the stories are sourced from the communities who own them.
3. That the communities make their own decision on what stories they want to have animated.
4. That the communities approve the story for animation.
5. That the story represents the community and clan and is specifically placed geographically.
6. Ownership and copyright of the story is always held by the nominated community council.
7. That the content of the animation including artist’s style be approved by the community at all key production stages.
8. That the story provided by the community is not rewritten or changed unless approved and endorsed by the community.
9. That the community be paid industry standard rates and receive royalties from revenues.
10. That Indigenous people design and participate in the creation of the animation at all stages of production.

This cultural protocol has been endorsed by the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) Inc. and the World Indigenous Peoples Conference: Education. UNICEF’s Film and Television Office and ASIFA, (the international animation industry association) have also supported the protocol.

A team of Aboriginal artists were trained in the techniques of traditional and computer assisted animation. Each story was researched in-depth so that the animators could accurately portray the content of each story. One important consideration was to look at the art produced from the area and to use this art as a basis to develop the style and the uniqueness of each story.

The Dreaming animation stories have won the following international film awards.
Festival Internacional de cinema video (Gava Spain)
Best Animated Film & City of Gava Best Film Award (all categories) for the story of The Dolphin
Chicago International Film Festival
Five individual Awards of Excellence
Annecy Film Festival
Commendation Jury Prize for the story The Bungulunga Man

Royalties are paid from sales to the storytellers and their communities.

© Copyright 2007
Aboriginal Nations Australia Pty Limited. ABN 78 087 139 106.
EQ 210/122 Lang Road, Moorepark 2021, Sydney, Australia.
Telephone: 61 2 8353 3610 Facsimile: 61 2) 8353 3611
Email: thedreaming.stories@gmail.com