PHOTO BY
SANDY SCHELTEMA
Wash My Soul In The River’s Flow
In 2004, Hunter and Roach, at the peak of their artistic power, created with Paul Grabowsky and the Australian Art Orchestra, Kura Tungar: Songs from the River— a legendary concert in which they told their life stories. Staged when the Australian government had not yet apologised to the Stolen Generations, filmmaker Philippa Bateman filmed rehearsals, conversations and the concert, regarded as a powerful act of reconciliation through the artistic collaboration between First Nations artists and non-Indigenous artists.
Now, 18 years later, Hunter and Roach’s profoundly moving experiences—about being stolen as children, finding each other as teenagers while searching for the families they were stolen from and falling in love, recovering from alcoholism and returning to their majestic lands—comes to the screen in a cinematic celebration of love, survival and triumph.
Now, 18 years later, Hunter and Roach’s profoundly moving experiences—about being stolen as children, finding each other as teenagers while searching for the families they were stolen from and falling in love, recovering from alcoholism and returning to their majestic lands—comes to the screen in a cinematic celebration of love, survival and triumph.