Connection to Country
Connection to Country follows a group of Indigenous people from the Pilbara as they battle to preserve Australia's unique cultural heritage from the ravages of a booming mining industry.
Weerianna Street Media
Synopsis
In the heart of Western Australia, the Burrup Peninsula hosts the largest concentration of rock art in the world; a dramatic, ancient landscape so sacred that some parts shouldn’t be looked upon at all except by Traditional Owners. Waves of industrialization and development threaten sites all over the Pilbara. The Burrup has become home to salt mines, iron ore port facilities and one of Australia’s largest gas plants. But the people of the Pilbara, forever connected to their country, forever responsible, are fighting back. Documenting the rock art, recording their sacred sites and battling to get their unique cultural heritage recorded, recognized and celebrated.

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Production Information
Writer & Director
Tyson Mowarin
Producers
Robin Marais
Executive Producers
John Moore
Key Cast
Tyson Mowarin
Reg Sambo
Frank Smith
Ricky Smith
Jean Churnside
Patrick Churnside
Cinematographer
Torstein Dyrting
Key Locations
Pilbara
Location Sound
Glenn Martin
Editors
Cris Broadhurst
Lindi Harrison
Executive Producers
John Moore
The importance of Burrup Peninsula
“When we first started working on the documentary, first time, I felt ‘I had better not do this’”
“I felt shame. But its not shame, its good to do it because you are leaving it for your people, your stories. I got used to it because I liked it and I though ‘don’t be ashamed’ you there putting it to your people, talking about land and whatever stories. I had my people in mind when I was talking.”
– Frank Smith, Key Subject


Always was, always will be
“Connection to Country is a kind of justice film”
“and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be involved in the issue to the extent i could be. Personally, I’m also the beneficiary of the unstinting support of NITV, and our production is also much obliged to our other financers, Screen Australia, Screenwest and Lotterywest, ABC Commercial and Tindale Rd Investments.
– Robyn Marais, Producer
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