Lousy Little Sixpence, made in 1983 by Alec Morgan and Gerry Bostok, is a documentary film that weaves a moving account of a hidden history that happened in county NSW, including here in Cootamundra.

In Australia in 1909 the Aborigines Protection Board (APB) broke up Aboriginal communities by forcibly removing their children and hiring them out as servants to white employers.

The title of this powerful documentary comes from the wages that were to be paid to the children, but many never saw that “lousy little sixpence”.

In the mid-1930s however, Aboriginal people began to organise, and to fight the Aborigines Protection Board.

Through old newsreels, archive film, photographs and interviews with very articulate elders, viewers learn not only about Aboriginal people’s experience under the APB, but also about the early struggle for Aboriginal land rights and self-determination.

John Baxter, reviewing the film in The Australian, wrote “A meticulous study of how white Australia between the wars consistently broke up Aboriginal families to manufacture a black servant class. Australia has produced few films of such quiet and ironic passion”.

Lousy Little Sixpence will be followed by three short films about the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE), including an address given by Cootamundra Wiradjuri man Jason Glanville, the inaugural CEO of the NCIE, in 2011.

Jason discusses the move from an Aboriginal stereotype of “disadvantage” to one of “excellence” and the films showcase the activities of the NCIE, as recently as January this year.

The screening will take place on Thursday, June 30 at 6pm in the Tin Shed Theatre.

The total running time is 89 minutes. Entry is by donation – any size.

These films, plus others, will also be on rotation in the theatre on Saturday, July 9 at the Cootamundra NAIDOC Community Celebration.