THE DREAMERS OF ARNHEM LAND is the remarkable story of two Aboriginal elders, Stuart and Valerie Ankin, who set out to save their community from cultural extinction. Combining traditional knowledge and contemporary scientific expertise, Stuart and Valerie created an economic impetus for younger Aborigines to return to their ancestor's lands.

Australia's North Coast, an area of 95,000 square miles, is home to some 20,000 indigenous Aborigines. As part of the government's assimilation policy in the 1950s, the Aborigines were moved into towns where a more sedentary life led to overcrowding, unemployment, chronic illness and alcohol abuse.

In 1977 the Aborigines of Arnhem Land were granted legal ownership of their traditional estates. Like many older Aborigines, Stuart and Valerie moved back to the lands of their childhood, and returned to a hunter/gatherer way of life. They invited scientists and marketing experts to help them to exploit resources commercially while ensuring any products were developed sustainably.

The documentary shows how they marketed natural medicines, plants and seeds, fruit juices and other organic products, as well as crocodile eggs and baby turtles, which led to an economic revitalization of the North Coast that encouraged many Aborigines to return to ancestral lands.

THE DREAMERS OF ARNHEM LAND reveals how this modern synergy -- as Stuart explains, "blackfella's knowledge and whiteman's knowledge" -- promises economic independence for the North Coast, while ensuring conservation of ancestral land and its natural resources. Equally important, as the film shows, this development has encouraged a revival of Aboriginal cultural and spiritual traditions, thereby saving their community from cultural extinction.

Select Accolades

• 2007 FIFO (International Festival of Pacific Films), Tahiti
• 2007 Trento Mountain Film Festival (Italy)
• 2005 Rio de Janeiro Ethnographic Film Festival
• 2005 Amazonas Film Festival (Brazil)