Voice

An inspirational insider’s look at a youth-led cross-country road trip to gather grassroots support for the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.

Cairns in Far North Queensland is the traditional home of the Yidinji and Yirrganydji peoples. From there, a group of volunteers – the Indigenous-run collective Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good (DIYDG) – decide to mount a grassroots campaign advocating for the ‘Yes’ vote to parliament. They set out in a minibus to commemorate a historic 1966 civil rights victory and partake in an annual pilgrimage to the Freedom Day festival some 3000 kilometres away; en route, they share yarns about their lives and those of their families with the folks they encounter. But while they seek to inspire a new future, the resulting votes seemingly bring another fight for recognition to a close.

Produced by Ben Lawrence – who won the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Ghosthunter (MIFF 2018) and the 2022 AWGIE Award for Documentary – Public Broadcast for the Julian Assange biography Ithaka (MIFF 2021) – this heart-filling portrait of a generation of young Indigenous leaders is also the first major Australian documentary to chronicle the journey of the Voice referendum. Co-directed by Krunal Padhiar and DIYDG co-founder and chair Semara Jose, this observational film lets its subjects offer building blocks for ongoing conversation and envisage the path ahead for First Nations people.