Breathing Life into Boodja (WA Tree Festival)

The film is a galvanising portrayal of large-scale environmental achievements being made by community groups, Aboriginal communities and rangers, conservation landholders, farmers, and scientists. Together, they are restoring and healing land around the Porongurup and Stirling Ranges in south-western Australia. In this region some of Australia’s most biologically diverse ecosystems were destroyed when land clearing for broad-acre agriculture was dramatically increased after World War II. Now restoration is underway across large tracts of open farmland and wildlife is returning.

At the same time, dispossessed Aboriginal communities are regaining their voice and their role as managers of their country. Their story is one of self-empowerment and cultural healing achieved as part of environmental recovery – healthy country and healthy people. This collaborative work is part of an ambitious 1,000-kilometre effort known as Gondwana Link, which is establishing an arc of continuous wildlife habitat from the tall, wet forests of the Margaret River area through to the semi-arid Great Western Woodlands around Kalgoorlie.

This documentary will screen for 48 minutes with talk afterward by Keith Bradby from Gondwana Link.