The Oldest Song on Earth

Colonisation disconnected many Aboriginal people from their cultural knowledge, a root cause of inter-generational trauma. Once taken away from their country, many lost knowledge of kinship, survival, tools, food, shelter, medicine & farming; and the knowledge contained in traditional songs, stories & dance.
This has left a hole in many Aboriginal people's lives, & in Carroll's case, he went searching for something that would bring him cultural meaning. Carroll will tell the story of this search to his sons on a road trip to retrieve their songs & dances together. By bringing their songs & dances back to Country, they will be learnt again, & younger generations won't have to go through the feelings of loss that Carroll has experienced.

This rollocking road trip across the island will inspire Australians to engage and love indigenous culture. We have formed a cross cultural team, with indigenous leadership; to write, produce and create this remarkable story of the Karpany family and the story of Australia. Our goal is to create a piece of educational art-entertainment that speaks to a wide audience about the history of our young nation (1788-2023) and the beauty and breadth of indigenous First Nations Australian culture.

The first hope is to see attitude shifts - simply through respectful acknowledgement of a life hard lived, & the way Carroll has tried to shield his own trauma from his sons. Particularly regarding racism & dispossession.
The hope then is for people to become more interested in Aboriginal culture in general & start to reach out and discover some knowledge for themselves. There are plenty of fiction & non-fiction books, films, series, theatre, dance & all sorts of other resources for discovering Aboriginal culture.
We hope the film will create pride in Aboriginal communities for the struggle and success of one of their own, a man who created history by starting Us Mob and then reinvigorated indigenous culture. We hope the film will inspire other Aboriginal individuals and communities to reinvigorate culture.

- Educational Guides - interactive online digital learning packages - Ngarrindjeri Cultural stories / the songs & dances that were brought back. (Within cultural boundaries) / Aboriginal political history / history of Aboriginal activism in Australia
- targeted screenings, music events & campaigns - Carroll's wish is to inspire other Aboriginal people to go & find culture / to do lore / to lead by example
- Outreach through Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri language nation organisations in South Australia. – teaching the lost song and dance and celebrating cultural revival.

Through Carroll’s family we have strong relationships with the Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri language nations in South Australia. Carroll intends to create community outreach through various youth and family groups to teach the lost song and dance to a new generation, and to celebrate the cultural revival.

Non indigenous audience – reframing their understanding and discussion of indigenous history and issues, engaging with First nations people through festivals and events. Suggesting their children’s schools view and interact with the digital learning packages created around the film.
Indigenous audience – to celebrate cultural reclamation within their own language nations and to engage in similar cultural revival practices.

Non indigenous audience success will initially be tested by anecdotal evidence garnered from feedback at screenings and after tv broadcasts. Secondary impact success can be seen in the uptake of digital learning packages and screenings by primary and secondary schools.
Impact success with Indigenous outreach – large scale acceptance of the recovered song and dance into the Narrindjeri language nation. Wide spread subscribing to the teaching of the recovered song and dance.