‘Australia has a very black past; Utopia shows real-life stories of what has happened over the past 225 years. I cried like I had lost a family member on three occasions watching this film – a must-see for all Australians.’

Adam Goodes, 2014 Australian of the Year, 9 February 2014

ANU Law Reform and Social Justice warmly invites you to a Canberra community screening of John Pilger’s Utopia.

Drawing on his long association with the first people of Australia, Pilger’s Utopia is both an epic portrayal of the oldest continuous human culture and an investigation into a suppressed colonial past and rapacious present.

“This film is a journey into that secret country,” says Pilger, “It will describe not only the uniqueness of the first Australians, but their trail of tears and betrayal and resistance – from one utopia to another”. Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians came from all over the country to hear the call for a renewed struggle for justice and freedom for Australia’s first peoples at Utopia’s premiere in January this year at The Block in Redfern, Sydney.

Jon Altman is a research professor in economics/anthropology at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research in the College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU; he has researched Indigenous development issues in Australia since 1977.

Dr Asmi Wood is a Senior Research Fellow and the Higher Degree Research manager for the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the ANU.