The voice of local Gamilaroi woman Suellyn Tighe has recently featured on a documentary titled ‘The Dark Emu Story’, based on the book Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe.

 This new documentary recently featured at the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday, 17 June. 

Directed by Allan Clarke and produced by Blackfella Films, the documentary has been described as ‘thought provoking’, ‘revelatory’ and ‘inspiring’ as it explores the cultural impact of the stories written by Bruce Pascoe in his 2014 best-selling book, Dark Emu. 

This book challenged the idea that Aboriginal people were only hunters and gatherers and argued that Aboriginal people were skilled in astronomy, agriculture and aquaculture – and even described Aboriginal people as the world’s first bakers. 

In the documentary, First Nations people from the rainforest to the desert share their culture and knowledge, shedding light on Indigenous achievements and following new and unfolding archaeological research that aims to test ‘the Dark Emu hypothesis’. 

Mr Clarke said that, as an Aboriginal man, he wasn’t surprised by Pascoe’s claims of an extraordinary pre-colonial Indigenous society. 

“I knew my ancestors had done incredible things that saw them thrive for tens of thousands of years, despite the historical narrative taught to me in school that we were primitive and opportunistic.” 

Suellyn Tighe’s role in the documentary was a voice over at the beginning of the documentary, telling the Indigenous story of the Emu in the Sky in Gamilaraay language. 

At the time of writing, Suellyn said she had yet to view the final product, but expects the documentary to display images of our beautiful dark skies as she tells the story of the emu that makes up the dark spaces of the Milky Way in our night sky. 

“Burrulaa guwaabal guwaaldanha gunagala-dhi, buluudha,” she said.

“There are many stories about the sky at night.

“Gawarrgay nhama gundaadhi buluudhi, gamilbala miriidhi, warrambuli. The emu is made up of dark clouds, not of stars in the milky way.”

Suellyn said she was surprised to have been asked to participate in the documentary as it had been quite some time since she had translated the same story during renovations of the exploratory at Siding Spring Observatory. 

However, since completing the voice-over work, Suellyn said she felt like she had found a new drive and she was looking forward to opportunities to do similar work in the future. 

Suellyn said it was great to be a part of the unravelling of the colonial narrative that Aboriginal people were only hunter-gatherers, and helping to shed light on the true story. 

The Dark Emu Story premiered on ABC TV and iview on Tuesday, 18 July, and is available for catch up on ABC iview. 

PHOTO: Suellyn Tighe, pictured centre, on the red carpet for the premiere of The Dark Emu Story. Image courtesy Tim Levy.