Paul Roberts

The story of the 1946 Aboriginal Pastoral Workers' Strike. Eight hundred aboriginal station workers walked off sheep stations in the north west of Western Australia, marking the beginning of a strike which lasted more than three years. The strike was more than a demand for better wages and conditions, it was a struggle for basic human rights.

Although about top Aboriginal sportsmen, BLACK MAGIC is more than a film about sport. It is an account of the creative use of sport made by the Noongar people of Western Australia's south-west to advance their people's standing. Denied access to other areas of social life like most Aboriginal communities at the time, the Noongars, from as early as 1920, channelled the natural talent of their young people into the arena of competitive sport, notably running, boxing and football. Competitive sport, as filmmaker Paul Roberts notes, is 'an open gate, a universal rite of passage, an opportunity to achieve recognition and acceptance.'