SAM WATSON
- The Street Fighting Years -
We're pleased to announce delivery of our latest production. NITV have just taken delivery of SAM WATSON The Street Fighting Years and are hopefully planning a November broadcast to coincide with the anniversary of the Aboriginal activist's death.
In this exclusive record, Sam looks back at the revolutionary years of the 1970s and 80s - a time when social revolution was shaping internaitonal landscape.
Sam Watson was a leading fighter for social justice for black Australians and one of the leading figures in the establishment of the Aboriginal Legal Service and the Aboriginal Medical Service in Queensland. He was also one of the central figures at the Aboriginal tent Embassy in Canberra. This was arguably the most potent political action ever undertaken by Aborigines in the twentieth century. He and Denis Walker established the Black Panther Party of Austalia in Brisbane in 1972 in an atmosphere which can only be descirbed as oppressive. Under the extreme right wing junta of Joh Bjelke-Peteresen Queensland in 1972 resembled more a third world dictatorship than a responsible Westminster parliamentary democracy.
Sam and his colleagues were spied upon, followed and harrassed by Queensland Police and the Australian Scurity and Intelligence Service (ASIO).
Their connections to the Communist Party of Australia made them prime targets. The Communist Party were the only mainstream Australian party to support landrights for Aborigines and had been instrumental in helping the establishment of the Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra.
Using previously unseen ASIO surveillance photographs this is an intimate portrait of the man, his wry wit and intelligence.
We'll announce time and date when NITV have scheduled the film.
October 6, 2020