Melanie Hogan and Uncle Bob Randall have a dream to get their film, "Kanyini" into as many Australian schools as possible. So far more than 1500 Australian schools have 'Kanyini' on their school library shelves and the momentum keeps on growing. Recently the team have a new opportunity to promote the film through a program they've developed called 'Yarnup'.

The Yarnup program takes the award winning documentary film 'Kanyini' (www.kanyini.com) into Australian schools and creates a support structure around the film to ensure that Australian students not only hear both sides of history, but also have the opportunity to form friendships with their local Indigenous people.

The idea is to use the film as a starting point to kickstart a relationship between the school and the local Indigenous community. The students are encouraged to run their own film screening and invite the local Indigenous community to the event. "We see this film screening as an action that says to the Indigenous people, we as a group of young Australians want to listen and learn from our Indigenous brothers and sisters. We want to know both sides of history and wish to move forward together," says the director of the film and Yarnup program, Melanie Hogan. Once the students know who their local Indigenous elders are, they are then encouraged to spend a special day with them to learn more about the sacredness of their local area and the local Indigenous culture.

Melanie and Uncle Bob are very excited that they have the financial support to undertake this initiative. "We need to develop strong relationships with the students and the local Indigenous people for the program to be a success. That's why we've created two support roles within the Yarnup Operating team – a support person for the students and a support person for the Indigenous people.  This, we hope, will ensure sustainability of the program", says Melanie.

The pilot film involves 30 schools in NSW and runs until the end of June, 2008. In the event the pilot program is successful Melanie and Bob hope to roll the 'Yarnup' program out nationally.
 
For schools wishing to use Kanyini in classrooms, a free study guide is available.  Download it now.

Please note: If you are seeing 'white boxes' it is because your school blocks Youtube. Click on the title 'Kanyini Trailer' instead.

Kanyini Trailer