Fire Talker

Synopsis

Fire Talker is a documentary biopic about Australian Aboriginal political activist, footballer and administrator, Dr Charles Perkins (aka Charlie Perkins).

Charles Perkins is an Australian Indigenous rights activist of the 2nd half of the 20th century. He shot to fame when he initiated and led the Aboriginal Freedom Ride across parts of the country in the 1970s to encourage and empower Aboriginal People to stand up for their rights in a fair and organised fashion. Charles Perkins operated inside and outside the system, and was the first Indigenous Australian to head an Australian Government Department.

Rachel Perkins, daughter of Charlie Perkins was curator for the 2009 Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival where the film premiered.

Fire Talker uses exclusive archival footage from the early 1960s to 2001 and builds an intimate and honest portrait of Charles Perkins’ life bound inexorably with the most dramatic political shifts in Australian Indigenous policy.