The six participants are brought to the heart of Aboriginal Australia - Uluru. Waiting for the group is award winning journalist, Ray Martin. Ray reveals to the group that they will spend the next 24 hours hosted by Aboriginal families in a place where more Indigenous people live than just about anywhere else in Australia - Sydney. The outspoken Aussies have their views challenged on everything from welfare to Aboriginal identity.
More than six out of ten who call Australia home have had little or no contact with Aboriginal people. The chasm and disconnect between the First Australians and the rest of the nation is vast. Building on the major television event broadcast of First Contact, this special Awaken with Stan Grant will talk to a panel on Indigenous Affairs to discuss misrepresentation, invisibility and trans-generational trauma - issues that are rooted firmly at the heart of colonisation. Why does this happen, what are the effects and what is the ‘first response’ towards understanding, empowerment and healing?
The group arrives on Elcho Island where around 2500 Aboriginal people live in some of the most deprived conditions in the western world. The six are shocked but in amongst the helplessness, there's hope. Next in Alice Springs, Ray Martin directs the travellers to join a night patrol service which helps the drunk and vulnerable. It's not long before tempers flare. Emotions are then pushed to the limit as the group meet women struggling with addiction and share their own life traumas. For one of the six, the journey into Aboriginal Australia becomes all too much to take. Next stop is the Pilbara where a very different side of the mining business will be revealed.
A Yamatji man from Western Australia, Ernie Dingo has had an incredible career in the Australian Media, his wit and humour challenging some of the most virulent issues impacting on Indigenous Peoples. Building on the major television event broadcast of First Contact, this special Awaken speaks to one of Australia’s most recognisable personalities about being back in the bush and his journey. Discussing the challenges he has faced over the decades, Ernie also talks to Stan about his view on the representation of Indigenous peoples in today’s media landscape.
After almost three weeks immersed into Aboriginal Australia, the group is about to face their most confronting experience yet. They are taken to Roebourne Regional Prison to discover what life is like on the inside. Coming face to face with Aboriginal prisoners splits the group in two. Ray Martin arrives at the prison and the final leg of the journey begins. The destination is Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley - a town once ravaged by the horrors of alcohol, domestic violence and suicide. But that was before local Aboriginal women fought back to save their community. By journey's end, the group is left to reflect on their epic adventure into Aboriginal Australia.
Ray Martin takes a group of six well-known Australians with diverse, deeply entrenched preconceptions and opinions about our nation's Indigenous people on a journey into Aboriginal Australia. The participants are singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia; ex-One Nation politician David Oldfield; TV personality Ian 'Dicko' Dickson; comedian Tom Ballard; former Miss Universe Australia Renae Ayris; and actress Nicki Wendt. In this episode, the journey begins in Uluru before host Ray Martin directs the group to Kununurra in the Kimberley, Western Australia, where the Aboriginal community is battling against alcohol, family violence and suicide.
Everybody has a view about the groundbreaking series First Contact but what are those opinions based on, real evidence or further prejudice? Catherine Liddle hosts this special panel episode.
In this episode, the group heads due south towards the tiny town of Elliott, halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs, and a place that has been called the "forgotten town". They meet local 'SK' who currently lives in a four-bedroom house with anywhere up to 20 other people. Natalie and Nicki are both shocked by what they are seeing in their own country. Then the six separate as the women head to Cootamundra and the men to Kempsey to visit sites of the former girl's and boy's homes that the Stolen Generations were sent to.
In this final episode of this season, the group finds themselves at the West Kimberley Regional Prison to experience what life is like in an Aboriginal prison. As night falls, they have a decision to make. A cell is available. Who in the group will take up the offering of joining the 10,000 Indigenous people locked up every night in Australia? In the morning, the group heads due east to the tiny town of Coen in far north Queensland, one of four communities to be part of a radical welfare reform experiment. They experience a controversial teaching technique that aims to close the education gap and get Aboriginal kids reading, writing and ultimately into work to escape the cycle of welfare dependency, and debate and opinions are stirred up again.
For the first time since their immersive four week journey in Aboriginal Australia, the participants - singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia; ex-One Nation politician, David Oldfield; TV personality, Ian 'Dicko' Dickson; comedian Tom Ballard; former Miss Universe Australia, Renae Ayris; and actress Nicki Wendt - reunite in a special forum hosted by Rhoda Roberts to discuss their experience and how it has impacted them.
Join Stan Grant for an Insight special on First Contact, directly following the final First Contact episode. Insight brings together the six participants of this confronting series, to see if they’ve changed their views. First Contact host Ray Martin, will also join this lively debate.
