NEW TARGET!! $20,000 !!!

To do this film justice without cutting corners will take $20,000... even then. (Travel to and from Maningrida is $1,500 per person to start with %20 all production, underwater stingray footage, edit, sound, festival costs.) I am putting my all into this film, my heart and soul and I was going to scrape it together but with your help we can make it absolutely beautiful as well as world-changing.

THEN!!! Any funds over 20k will go towards Protect Arnhem Land's campaign ideas. We are hoping to organise FRACK OFF FEST! We want to organise a music festival in Darwin to raise awareness about the impacts of fracking and invite Aussie musicians who support the campaign to play... we have begun discussions with some bands already!! Hit me up for more details!! We are so excited!












Remember these faces. These women will change the way the nation thinks Indigenous Australia.

Three sisters, born in Maningrida NT raised in Brisbane, have returned to save their mother’s country from ruin. As the first indigenous group to stand up against petroleum and gas seabed mining in Arnhem Land, these girls know they have a huge battle ahead. A Petroleum Exploration Company has identified 40 parcels of water throughout Arnhem Land that could be the next gold field for gas and petroleum offshore mining. These mining hot spots are located in sacred waters, untouched until now, and if granted this company will set a precedent for unconventional mining in the top end.



Why donate?
Alice, Noni and Grace are a part of my family. We met when I was ten years old and since then I have been to Maningrida several times. I am extremely passionate about this project because Maningrida has become a second home to me. I can't sleep at night thinking about what will happen if this exploration gets approved, so I only have one option but to make this film. Everyone that knows the Stingray Sisters will agree that their story, from birth to now, is an incredible story, one that needs to be shared with the world.

We have already shot some great footage but we need to return to Maningrida and I have run out of money. It is extremely hard to make a film in Arnhem Land, travel and production costs are so high, that's why I am asking you to help us get it finished. Together we can introduce the world to these amazing women and save their country at the same time and that's what I am proposing we do with this film!

All funds raised will go towards:

- Production Costs
- Travel & Accommodation
- Camera
- Sound Equipment
- Editing, Post-production, Music, Sound
- Festivals
- Promotion (Telling the world about the Stingray Sisters)

STINGRAY SISTERS: SIZZLE REEL

DJAPA: INTERVIEW WITH ALICE ON COUNTRY

FACEBOOK: PROTECT ARNHEM LAND GROUP
www.facebook.com/ProtectArnhemLandNT

If you'd like to read more about the documentary... please read on.

The Stingray Sisters need your help to save their community from ruin. Unconventional seabed mining will destroy the entire Northern Territory coast, unless we do something about it.



There are some places on Earth that should remain sacred and Arnhem Land is one of those places.

Film is a powerful tool for changing minds and opening debate. However, more than that this film will tell a very powerful story about love; love for you land, love for your home, love for you culture and most of all love for your sisters.



We want to show the world that what these women have, is rare. So rare.
I'm talking about belonging to a place. I'm not talking about a home in the way that most of us would think about home, I'm talking about a deep, deep connection to a place that is so fundamental to your existence that you would get physically ill without it. If for some reason you had to leave your house it may be hard but you'd probably pack up all the things you cared about, your family, the dog, your precious belongings and set up in a new home and maybe even get used to it. Imagine then if your home was the sea, the land, the people, there was no fence, it was everything around you. Then someone comes along and says we are ripping up your yard and putting in this dirty rig and there's nothing you can do about it. You couldn't stay there, you wouldn't stay there but what are your options? If you live off the sea and the fish are dying from fracking and pollution, what do you do, sit there and wait to die? Do you move away? Imagine trying to pack up 300 members of your family, and pack up your precious belongings including 40,000 years of culture and language? Pack up your sacred sites before they get destroyed, pack up your beliefs, pack up your elders who know everything there is to know about that one place, your lifeline is the seafood so you gather as many fish as you can, then what, move on? But there is no where to go. These things cannot be moved. For these women, Maningrida is it. They only have one place. Once you destroy it, that's it you destroy everything with it, including the people. Are there not some places on Earth worth protecting? Some greedy people out there will take and take from this Earth until it cannot take anymore... And this, in the end, will destroy us all.

Anything you can contribute will be greatly appreciated and go directly towards the cost of travel, equipment, production and post.


Preliminary Treatment
At the height of the mining boom in Australia, the country seems to be floating on an economic cloud of precious minerals, gas and petroleum. Taken that our nation’s enthusiasm for precious resources is endless, it is hard to get any kind of perspective of what’s really at stake, until of course the mining companies are knocking on your door. Our sisters got the shock of their lives when they realised that their home in Maningrida, one of the last like it, is under threat from this so-called mining boom. Willing to stop this exploration at any cost, including physically blocking the Liverpool River, means this could be the biggest fight for ownership since Mabo.
The sisters’ favourite place, their mother’s house, is perched on the seaside, looking out to their grandmother’s island Kabalko. To imagine the vista across the clear saltwater destroyed by a dirty oil-rig sends them into hysteria. Exploring for gas and petroleum would damage the community to no end. Watching old people and children getting sick, not being able to fish, to see the community lose hope, to see their people torn apart by mining money would be the greatest loss for them since colonisation.

Ensuring their three daughters knew the Ndjebbana language and Kunibiji culture whilst being educated the balanda way was an important undertaking for Father Michael Eather and Mother Helen Djimbarrawala Williams. Living between Brisbane and Maningrida, NT, was never easy for the sisters but now - having developed into proud teachers and community leaders - they can finally appreciate having known the best of both worlds. The stingray sisters united by a passion for education, family and culture, will need their smarts in order to save their mother’s land, the one place they really belong. Maningrida and surrounding communities, threatened by seabed, gas and petroleum exploration are the next target for mining companies in the Northern Territory.

When Michael Eather left Tasmania at twenty-one years of age and followed his sister to a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory he had no idea that his life would change, very dramatically, forever. As a young artist on an adventure of a lifetime, Michael fell in love with Maningrida and with one woman in particular, Helen Djimbarrawala Williams. On a beautiful full-moon night on the shores of Maningrida, right in front of Helen’s house, Michael caught his very first stingray. That night, mentored by traditional men, Michael mastered the art of stingray hunting. He caught several stingrays that night, surely more than a coincidence, as this was the exact same evening their first daughter, Noni, was brought into the world. Hence the stingray story was born. Helen gave birth to two more beautiful daughters. This story is about those daughters, the Stingray Sisters.

Noni (27), Alice (24) and Grace (22) have always known two homes. Spending their very early years hunting and fishing in Maningrida was a dream come true. Maningrida was their oyster. These bush babies, when ready for primary school, were devastated to leave their home, being plunged into the big smoke in Brisbane. Guided by their determined father and with support of each other our sisters eventually found their way. Brisbane turned out to be a great place to spend their formative years. Michael, from very meagre beginnings, pioneered the ‘Fireworks Gallery’ in Brisbane and the sisters grew up surrounded by influential Aboriginal artists like Vernon Ahkee, Richard Bell, MNJ and the Campfire group. All the while the stingray story grew stronger as the image appeared more and more in their father’s artwork. As the girls reached adulthood they realised how much they missed their mother’s country and how much their country missed them. Being educated, strong, out-spoken contemporary Kunibidji women is a rare find. Fortunate enough to be apart of a 40,000 year-old culture and have an education they can use productively in a modern society means they are the best, the only candidates, to lead this mining battle and have any chance of success.

Sitting on the very beach their stingray dreaming began all those years ago; in all their glory, they discuss their family, their careers and the future of Maningrida. Their charisma, intelligence and beauty is hard to ignore. Inked on their coffee coloured skin are various images of stingrays, evidence of the lasting significance of that night back in 1985.
Feeling lost in the city the sisters found their way back to country in 2009. Now, as educated leaders and proud Kunibidji women they are highly regarded by elders and young people alike. But nothing could have prepared them for the news they received late last year when a local schoolteacher discovered a small article in the NT newspaper. That tiny article was the Northern Land Council’s way of telling the affected communities about the proposed exploration plans. From that, Land Owners had to put objection letters forward to the NT government within 6 weeks in order to demonstrate their opposition to the exploration proposals. The sisters, with the help of the Protect Arnhem Land committee, managed to submit over 40 letters of objection before the due date. After much heartache and tears, the sisters have grown strong. They have a Lawyer and an Anthropologist volunteering their time to the cause, getting sacred sites registered through the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority is already underway. The sisters have organized their first Awareness Day that saw a hundred Maningridians’ at the shoreline protesting against the proposed exploration. The committee has already begun raising funds for a proposed concert with Paul Kelly, Black Arm Band and other prominent artists.

After attending the Awareness Day in Maningrida late last year, Stuart Blanch, Head of the Environment Centre in NT, raised some money to send representatives down to Sydney, attempting to face the Petroleum man himself and get some answers regarding the community’s concerns about the affects of seabed mining. Stuart Blanch, will provide an overview of seabed mining and explain how the technology has advanced beyond the environmental impacts research into unconventional and offshore mining techniques.

With prominent Land Owners at the helm, the sisters will take the dangerous road out of Maningrida. Visiting nearby communities along the way, sitting down with various clans all along the Arnhem coast, sharing the devastating news. Enraged and inspired by the reactions from other communities from across the top end, the group will continue their journey south; collecting more signatures and photos of blue hands. The group will visit radio and television stations from Northern Territory to New South Wales, plastering the Protect Arnhem Land blue hand wherever they go. Whether the group meet with the exploration company or not, they will make enough noise to get the nation listening.

Helen Williams, a passionate, intelligent and admired land owner will open up about her past as a traditional woman who attended boarding school and as a young woman who similarly had been exposed to the best and worst of both worlds. She will provide heartbreaking accounts of loss: having to give up her daughters all those years ago, loss of traditional ways but most of all she will represent the very essence of what the sisters are trying to save. She is the person they are fighting for. To save the songlines, the language, traditions, kinship, the sea and country would be the greatest way to honour her and the sacrifices she has made for her entire family. In order to honour their mother’s ancient culture, a culture that swims through their very veins they must take the reins and be a voice for the rest of the community who haven’t been given the opportunity. Throughout this film audiences will learn that this responsibility is a heavy load to bear.

Helen’s knowledge of their ancient culture will provide context to the sacred areas in jeopardy of being lost through exploration. Her stories will be woven throughout the film and used as transitional devices or mood pieces as the story develops. For example on a boat trip to her family’s island, Kablko, Helen will identify the songlines and sacred sites that stretch through the saltwater and back to shore. Telling heartfelt stories behind these culturally significant locations that have never been shared before. Dramatised and stylised vision will accompany her narration. These pieces will provide a deeper understanding of the Kunibidji/ Kunbulung clans and illustrate the prevailing connection to spirituality. A connection that differs in no way to the manner in which Christians relate to God, and if your ‘gods’ and ‘spirits’ reside in the water and land you too would do whatever it takes to protect them.

Finally ending their city escapade in Brisbane. On the town with the girls it is obvious that their influential presence is not limited to Maningrida. In Brisbane everyone seems to know the Eather sisters.

Alice will take us around to her old stomping grounds and nostalgically give audiences an insight into the sisters’ childhood in New Farm. She will end the tour at a place she would rather forget, the mental health clinic that signifies her dark days and made her realise how important Maningrida really is to her. This will provide insight into the deep disconnect that many Aboriginal Australians feel due to loss of identity.
All the while the sisters will be preparing for their final exams, teaching pracs, looking after family and somewhere in between Grace will be training for the Marathon as part of the Indigenous Marathon Project. http://imp.org.au
If that wasn’t enough, after 15 years away, Michael Eather will make a surprise visit to Maningrida and reunite the family again, providing some much needed support and a welcome distraction from the current obstacles in the sisters’ lives.
Inspired and re-energised the girls will return to Maningrida to await the verdict of the mining permits. Whether granted a moratorium or whether they have to physically block the Liverpool River, this film will demonstrate that these unique, beautiful sisters will do whatever it takes to save their community. Teaching our girls that their greatest assets are each other. Without the bond of sisterhood these struggles would be insurmountable. This is just the beginning for the Stingray Sisters.



What will audiences understand?
The stingray sisters’ unique personalities and personal struggles will be revealed throughout the documentary. Whether you’re for, against or impartial to the mining industry, it will be impossible not fall in love with these girls on screen. As Kunibidji sisters, activists, mothers, role models, teachers, stunners, marathon runners and trendsetters it will be hard to deny that these unique Australian women deserve to voice their story. This documentary will expose these Aboriginal women for what they really are: truly amazing and ultimately very human. This documentary will truly immerse audiences in the community in a way that is rarely achieved. From party girls to activists to proud Kunibidji, Ndjebbana-speaking leaders, this story will reflect a new image of Indigenous Australians and challenge the way the wider community perceives our first nation people.
Aimed at the 18-45 year-old demographic and in the wake of the ‘Sapphires’ this will be a real and positive portrayal of Indigenous females. The ‘Stingray Sisters’ will open the conversation about mining in these traditional communities and could be the catalyst for much debate over the issue. But at the heart of it this film is about the bond of sisterhood and will be a story that affects viewers for time to come. To fight for what you love is a story convention that all audience members can relate to. After all this is a story about love. Love for your home, love for your people and love for your sisters.