National Indigenous Television (NITV) has a massive and diverse slate of programs coming your way in 2022, including the return of your favourite sports, food and travel shows plus new thought-provoking documentaries and drama series.
Let's take a look at what's on the Black box.
True Colours
True Colours is a new 4-part crime drama series, which features both Arrente and English language, an Australian first.
The series follows Detective Toni Alma who is assigned to investigate a suspicious car accident in Perdar Theendar, the Aboriginal community she left as a child. The beauty of Aboriginal art and the sometimes-devious practices in the global art market take Detective Toni Alma on a hunt for a killer.
This is a murder mystery like no other, exploring culture, community, family and one woman’s pursuit to find her place within it.
An original series concept by Arrernte singer-songwriter Warren H. Williams with co-creator, writer and director Erica Glynn, True Colours features a stellar cast including Williams, Rarriwuy Hick (Redfern Now, Cleverman), Luke Arnold (Never Tear Us Apart, Black Sails), Errol Shand (Mystery Road, Rake), Emilie de Ravin (Remember Me, Lost), Trisha Morton Thomas (Total Control) and Miranda Otto (The Unusual Suspects, The Lord of the Rings).
Warren H Williams stars alongside Rrariwuy Hick in new crime drama True Colours Source: Supplied
Off Country
Off Country follows the lives of seven Indigenous students over a year as they leave home and become boarders at one of the most elite schools in the country, Geelong Grammar School.
Wrestling with their conflicting identities as students move between boarding life and home life, Off Country creates a historic record of one of Australia's key Indigenous education pathways and a complex portrait of what it is to be a First Nations child in Australia today.
New series Off Country follows the lives of seven Indigenous students as they leave home to become boarders at an elite private school. Source: Supplied
Curious Australia series:
Black Empire - After a successful but exhausting career fighting prejudice, racism, and exploitation in the Australian music industry, Larrakia, Yanyuwa, Bardi and Wardaman rapper Jimblah embarks on his latest project - BLKMPIRE - aiming to reimagine how the music industry can work. But can he transform the country through black song, or will the staid traditions of an exploitative industry rear their heads?
Sista's in Mining - is a documentary that will follow the inspiring story of Shontell Leah Ketchell, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman, who is an aspiring screenwriter who works as a production operator on a coal mine in Central Queensland.
Un-Locked - aims to put a unique lens on juvenile incarceration from Indigenous and non- Indigenous perspectives. The documentary will also examine the different experiences of individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds.
Barrumbi Kids
Barrumbi Kids tells the rollicking, coming-of-age story of Tomias and Dahlia - two best friends growing up in a magical and remote Northern Territory community. This series celebrates the value of unstructured outdoor play, living with the consequences of their shenanigans, engaging with the physical world and above all, making your own fun!
A fast-paced drama with action, humour and heart. Through fishing, hunting and schooling, the children learn about themselves, each other and living in both Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal cultures.
New series, Barrumbi Kids is a coming of age tale set in remote Northern Territory where the value of unstructured outdoor play is celebrated. Source: SBS
Larapinta
Larapinta is a six-part environmental documentary, told through the eyes of young presenter Talia Liddle. Drawing on inspiration from documentaries such as Our Planet, it will educate and inspire audiences to connect to Country, to look at Country from a different perspective, as something to care for rather than something at our disposal.
Larapinta will look at the effect of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culture and Country but it will also show the strength that continues to this day - an equal balance of horror and beauty.
Larapinta is an environmental documentary, told through the eyes of young presenter Talia Liddle. Source: SBS
Yum Cha Footy
More dumplings and dim sims, please! Join us as the best league players bring their mates to talk sport, pop culture and the issues that affect us all in an off-the-cuff, fly on the wall chat over dinner at their favourite restaurant.
Our Law
After 170 years of locked doors and sealed lips, documentary cameras are now granted intimate and candid access to the Indigenous officers and cadets attempting to break the cycle of Indigenous incarceration and repair a deeply troubled Aboriginal-police relationship, while giving voice to the communities being policed.
In Our Law, Documentary cameras gain intimate and candid access to the Indigenous officers and cadets attempting to break the cycle of Indigenous Incarceration Source: SBS
Going Places with Ernie Dingo S5
Going Places with Ernie Dingo will return to NITV this year, introducing a new suite of iconic destinations. From the Kakadu National Park to the Great Barrier Reef, Ernie is no stranger to exploring the beauty that our country has to offer. After four seasons, Ernie will be hitting the road with some friends - actor Aaron Fa’aoso, journalist Rae Johnston, entrepreneur and presenter Bianca Hunt and Network 10 presenter Narelda Jacobs.
Ernie Dingo returns for season 5 of his travel show, Going Places Source: SBS
SkipAd
Click that button and ‘Skip This Ad’ now. Skip Ad is a half-hour of all the wild and crazy content from IG, YouTube, TikTok, and wherever else people are silly enough to post selfies of themselves eating dishwasher tablets. It’s Funniest Home Videos, but for the new generation. Slow TV? No thanks! This is ‘Fast TV’. Grab whatever screen you have and let’s get meta!
National Indigenous Music Awards 2022
The National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) will return to NITV in 2022 Source: Facebook
The First Inventors
In this flagship series, The First Inventors uncovers the vast, innovative knowledge of Indigenous Australia. Rob Collins takes a journey through continental time and Country as he meets and collaborates with First Nations experts whose front-line Australian fieldwork is illuminating ancient innovations and discoveries.
Strait To The Plate S2
Strait to the Plate’s second season follows the return of Aaron Fa’Aoso as he travels throughout the three western regions (Top Western, Western, and Near Western) traditionally known as the Guda Maluylgal, Maluyligal and Kawaialagalgal regions of the Torres Strait Islands. Island hopping by dinghy and air, he visits Saibai, Boigu, Dauan, Mabuyag, Thursday Island, Hammond, Prince of Wales and Friday Island.
Aaron Fa'Aoso returns for Season 2 of Strait To The Plate celebrating Torres Strait Islands culture and culinary delights Source: SBS
Keeping Hope
Mark Coles Smith is at the beginning of a difficult personal journey. He has been haunted by unanswered questions regarding the suicide of his best friend in the Kimberly ten years ago. While the passing of years has numbed the pain, Mark reflects how people who die young are frozen in time. However, with those who take their own lives, it’s difficult to properly celebrate their lives because when talking about them feelings of guilt and remorse inevitably arise. They become statistics and painful memories. Suicide in Indigenous communities is now at epidemic proportions. It’s something we must talk about. Mark travels across the Kimberley to visit some of the worst affected areas and speaks with professionals, Indigenous community leaders, and his own family to find out what’s being done and what is still needed.
Kutcha's Koorioke S2
Kutcha's Koorioke marks it’s free to air premiere as it joins the NITV family in its second season. Hosted by acclaimed Mutti Mutti songman Kutcha Edwards, join Kutcha and a stellar group of Indigenous performers young and old on a musical journey through Wurundjeri country - the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.
No Ordinary Black
No Ordinary Black is designed to bring to the screen thought-provoking First Nation stories, authored and crafted by First Nations people:
- Blackfellas Who Can't Dance: A comedy-drama from writer/director Enoch Mailangi (All My Friends Are Racist) and producer Majhid Heath (Dark Place). This story follows Nathan, who falls in love at a gym but soon finds his love interest is fundamentally different, and the two dance around their desires
- Finding Jedda: Finding Jedda, which follows two girls who go head-to-head for the role of a lifetime, in a reimagining of the 1954 auditions for the iconic Australian film Jedda. Writer/director Tanith Glynn-Maloney (Robbie Hood) teams up with executive producers Dan Lake and Meg O'Connell (Retrograde).
- Mudskipper: Martha, a Torres Strait Islander woman, works tirelessly in a laundromat loading machines and folding washing, ready for the collection of her boss. When a mysterious visitor arrives, Martha is reminded of the life she has left behind. The creative team features writer/director John Harvey (Water), writer Walter Waia and producer Gillian Moody (Ties That Bind)
- Shiny One: A comedy from writer/director Viviana Petyarre (Utopia Generations), producer Tanith Glynn-Maloney (Robbie Hood) and executive producers Dan Lake and Meg O'Connell (Retrograde). The film centres on a youngfella named Wenye, who leaves his remote community to pursue a dream vision calling him to the big smoke to find his pot of gold.
- The Lost Crystal of Jessica's Room: From writer/director Gary Hamaguchi and producer Jodie Bell, who previously collaborated on Saving Seagrass. The film follows two children who play a game where they use a treasure map to find a crystal in their backyard, but the crystal is not what is seems
RETURNING NITV NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS IN 2022
In 2022, our dedicated team of NITV journalists across the country will continue to deliver breaking news, cover big stories and explore the issues that matter most to communities across Australia. NITV’s flagship program The Point is back with John Paul Janke and Channel 10's Narelda Jacobs, joined by key commentators and high-profile personalities each week to discuss all the stories you need to know through a unique Indigenous perspective.
Karla Grant returns for another season of Living Black, where she sits down with inspiring and influential people to delve into issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, bringing personal insight to extraordinary stories.
Veteran journalist and presenter Natalie Ahmat is joined by a nationwide team of First Nations journalists back on screens seven days a week in 2022 with daily editions of NITV News and Friday national wrap program Nula.
Living Black with Karla Grant returns in 2022 covering issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples Source: NITV
RETURNING NITV SPORT IN 2022
Championing young, diverse players and perspectives, Yokayi Footy returns. to NITV in March. Viewers will get their footy fix, be treated to player interviews, and enjoy moving community stories as football and Indigenous culture intersect.
Over the Black Dot also returns in March, with an all-Indigenous panel covering NRL highlights alongside special guests, championing Indigenous achievements and having some laughs along the way.
After the 50th anniversary of the Koori Knockout was postponed to 2021, the tournament will return to its home on NITV, live in October.
