Solid Screen Awards and Scenic Rim Retreat 2021

The 2021 Solid Screen Awards have gone to 6 Aboriginal women representing a variety of roles in different media platforms and communities from across Australia.

The annual Solid Awards honour those who have long standing and also emerging careers in the screen arts, to acknowledge those creatives who have contributed substantially to their respective industries over decades. The Solid Screen initiatives are home grown in Australia, with a unique focus on Indigenous Women around the world, and a very rare opportunity to celebrate the current outstanding practice, which helps to grow screen culture locally, and also put the regions on the map internationally.

The Solid Screen Storyteller Award has gone to Miriam Corowa (NSW) and was presented to her during the May converge media conference on Bundjalung Country in her hometown of Lismore in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. Miriam is a member of the Minyangbal and Bundjalung people and also has South Sea Islander heritage. She is a journalist, presenter, producer, and director, and began her career as a production assistant for Indigenous Current Affairs Magazine (the predecessor show to Living Black) on SBS. Miriam later moved into the newsroom at SBS World News and after completing a cadetship in 2003, became a TV reporter, then joined the ABC News team in 2012.

A Solid Screen Trailblazer Award has gone to Rhoda Roberts (NSW), a Widjabul Wiyebal woman from the Bundjalung nation who grew up in Lismore. Rhoda is a veteran actor, festival director and arts executive, whose early work broke down barriers in the Australian media landscape. In 1990 Rhoda was employed as presenter of Vox Populi, a Special Broadcasting Service program, becoming the first Indigenous Australian to present a prime time current affairs program. Rhoda’s current role is Creative Director at NORPA in Lismore, leading in the development of new First Nations works, contributing to programming and assisting with engagement in community.

The Solid Youth Screen Culture Award was given to Rachael Hocking (NT), also during the converge media conference in Lismore, where she originally started her career at the Koori Mail. Walpiri woman Rachael Hocking, is a freelance multi-platform journalist, moderator and TV presenter. In 2019 she joined the Board for the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma in the Asia Pacific, where she advocates for better, trauma-informed reporting in Indigenous communities. Rachael is passionate about sharing First Nations stories and in 2020 she received a First Nations Media Australia award for her coverage of Kumanjayi Walker who was shot in his home by a Police Officer in the Northern Territory.

Freda Glynn (born 1939), a Kaytetye photographer and media specialist from the Northern Territory is recognised with a Solid Screen Trailblazer Award. Freda Glynn is in her eighties now, and best known for co-creating the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), a turning point for Indigenous broadcasting across the continent. By 1982, CAAMA was broadcasting on 8KIN FM in Arrernte, Pitjantjatjara, Luritja and Warlpiri languages. Freda was also responsible for the development of Imparja Television in 1988, the first Aboriginal commercial network. Based in Alice Springs, Imparja’s service continues to deliver programs across eastern and central Australia. Freda Glynn is also the matriarch of a film-making family that spans three generations, and in 2018 she was bestowed with the Don Dunstan Award for an outstanding contribution to the country’s screen culture.

Erica Glynn is acknowledged with a Solid Screen Storyteller Award. Erica is a Drama Directing graduate of AFTRS in Sydney, and cut her teeth working for the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) in Alice Springs. Erica’s award-winning short film My Bed, Your Bed from 1998 was an international success. She also made many documentaries including A Walk With Words featuring Romaine Moreton, and Ngangkari about traditional healers of the Central Desert Region. Erica was the Head of the Indigenous Department of Screen Australia from 2010 to 2014 and was Executive Producer of the award winning ABC TV series Redfern Now, Gods of Wheat Street, and 8MMM Aboriginal Radio. Recent work includes writing for children’s animation series, developing a new TV series titled Copping it Black and directing documentaries such as She Who Must Be Loved, about her mother, Freda Glynn.

A Solid Screen Storyteller Award has also gone to filmmaker Janine Kelly who strongly identifies to the Nhanada & Wilunyu Yamaji people of the mid-west coast of Western Australia. Prior to beginning studies at Griffith Film School Janine’s first short film Bunny had won Best Indigenous documentary at Armadale film festival in Perth 2012 and was screened at St Kilda Film Festival in Melbourne. Since then, Janine has produced, written and directed several short films for NITV’s Our Stories Our Way for Broadcast. Janine is currently in her research masters. Among Janine’s film portfolio is an independent film called My Struggle My Fight filmed with some Cherbourg women in South East Queensland, which exposes the systemic racism that some Aboriginal women face in Aboriginal Child Removal.

The awards were affirmed at the 2021 Solid Sisters Healing Retreat that took place over July 16-19, which is presented by curator Jenny Fraser, self-funded to help support Indigenous Womens knowledges, held on Ugarapul and Migunberri country in the Scenic Rim of South East Queensland. The Solid Sisters Retreat, originally established in 2014 to hold space for healing and decolonising with Indigenous women artists and other storytellers and knowledge keepers to take time out together for exchange. The 2021 gathering is the sixth time that Solid has exclusively focused on a private retreat for invited artists-in-residence in a nurturing environment, and received the blessing of local Ugarapul Traditional Owner Aunty Ruth James. “A focus for Solid this year was to help raise our vibration, and also mark the gathering spirit by sparing a thought for the local plant kingdom that frequently face times of drought, fires or flooding, and encroaching urbanisation. It was a good opportunity for screen testing to get community feedback about the Jinda Film. The Solid Sisters also contributed to a collaborative artwork and shared a signature Native Christmas meal of local bush foods of the season including Lily Pilly, Davidson Plums with a Kangaroo Stew and baked Yams, before a road trip to Mt Barney” said Curator Jenny Fraser.

and here is a link to an article about the 2021 Solid Screen Awards and Retreat featured on FILMINK.