On Saturday, April 27, 2019, I attended an exhibition of the Karrabing Film Collective’s work which is currently on display at MoMA PS1. The Karrabing Film Collective is a group of indigenous artists, filmmakers, and activists living in the Northern Territories of Australia. According to the museum’s program, the collective makes use of its films and installation art as a “form of grassroots resistance and self-organization.” This exhibition is the first time that the collective’s work has been displayed in its entirety within the United States.

The Karrabing Film Collective consists of around 30 members of all ages, from children to elderly people. Since having been established in 2011, the collective has produced an impressive body of work which consists of nine short films, both single and multi-channel, as well as accompanying sculptural installations. Each of the films and sculptures set their aim on addressing issues facing indigenous people in Australia. Their films, which are semi-scripted, incorporate elements of both documentary and fiction filmmaking. Though dramatized, and often satirized, the collective’s films are informed by their lived experiences within settler colonialism.

One of the films, which I was able to see in its entirety, was the single-channel film When the Dogs Talked (2014). The film was projected on a wall inside a small gallery room. In the center of the room were five chemical waste containers. The containers, which were one of the sculptural elements included by the collective, also functioned as seating for the film. This is a significant symbol, being that the indigenous people were expelled from their lands and have been forced into areas which are in dangerously close proximity to chemical waste areas.

The film, which was divided into chapters, was one of their more narrative works. The film centers around a large group of indigenous people living in a house in the country. The film opens as the camera pans through the home. There are sleeping bodies covering every inch of the frame. As the rest of the house sleeps, one of the adult women quietly sneaks away and is seen walking out into the country. The rest of the house is awoken by a knock on the door, a department of housing has come to evict the group if they are unable to speak to the homeowner. It then becomes clear that the woman they need to speak to is the same one who had left the home in the early morning and now the group has no way to contact her. The rest of the film follows the group as they travel out into the wild Australian countryside in search of the woman. While they are on this search, the elder members relay traditional stories to the younger members of the group. This film, like a majority of the groups work, addresses the relationship between the indigenous people, the land, and the interference of colonial institutions.