Spikes Asia

Of the land. For the land.

HOST/HAVAS, Sydney / DEFENCE FORCE RECRUITING / 2019

Film

Overview

Entries

Credits

Overview

Background

Indigenous Australians have had a close connection to the land for tens of thousands of years.

Their relationship to the land is ingrained in their culture and the responsibility of protecting it is passed down from generation to generation.

Information is passed on through songlines; paths across the land which mark a route to follow communicated through traditional songs, stories, dance, and painting.

Indigenous people are able to navigate across the land by repeating the words of the song, which describe the location of landmarks, waterholes, and other natural phenomena.

By singing the songs in the appropriate sequence, Indigenous people can navigate vast distances, often through the deserts of Australia's interior. Australia contains an extensive system of songlines, some of which are of a few kilometres, while others traverse hundreds of kilometres through lands of many different Indigenous peoples.

Execution

Of The Land, For The Land tells the story of NORFORCE; a unit within the Australian Army, who covers the largest land mass of any military unit in the world; 1.8 million square kilometres. They conduct covert surveillance to prevent illegal fishing, drug trafficking and native animal smuggling.

The majority of the unit consists of Indigenous personnel. They have unique skills and abilities that allow them to excel in their roles, such as living off the land, knowing local customs and languages of the areas they patrol and an innate ability to detect incredibly subtle details in the natural environment than others wouldn’t notice.

The soldiers describe how their roles in the army reflects their ‘warrior spirit’; an inherited responsibility to protect the land, just as their ancestors have done for 80,000 years.

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