Arrernte/Kalkadoon woman Rachel Perkins (b. 1970) is the daughter of First Nations activists Eileen and Charlie Perkins. At the age of 18, she moved to Alice Springs and entered into a traineeship at the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). She began to learn first-hand not only the technical and multitasking aspects of filmmaking, editing, directing and producing but the collaborative nature of storytelling amongst the central Australian communities. Laying the foundation for her career, CAAMA co-founder and director Freda Glynn instilled in Perkins the need to empower others and 'be the instrument for our people to speak through'. She worked extensively on the Nganampa Anwernekenhe, a long running series which showcased Indigenous languages and cultures.
At 21, Perkins become the youngest female executive producer at SBS Television, generating programming for the Aboriginal Film Unit. She continued to utilise the audio-visual medium as a positive form of representation, producing series such as the three-part documentary Blood Brothers (1993) and From Spirit to Spirit, the first international television series created solely by Indigenous peoples from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway.
In 1992, frustrated by the passive portrayals of Indigenous culture she encountered in textbooks and on television written by non-Indigenous people, Perkins forged forward to found the production company Blackfella Films, a documentary and narrative production company creating distinctive Australian content for television, live theatre, and online platforms, with a particular emphasis on Indigenous Australian stories. Focused on self-representation, Blackfella Films commits resources to culturally significant stories, told by and with Indigenous media practitioners. Its productions have included multi-award winning seven-part documentary series First Australians, television film Mabo, and TV series Redfern Now.
