Feature-length documentary You Can Go Now starring activist and award-winning artist Richard Bell premieres on Sunday 24 September at 8.30pm on NITV and SBS.Four-part documentary series Rebel with a Cause, featuring First Nations trailblazers across media, politics, poetry and law premieres on Sunday 1 October at 9pm on NITV and SBS.
Special episodes of Dateline and Insight will be presented by Walkley Award-winning journalist Karla Grant airing in September and October.
Current affairs program The Point: Referendum Road Trip continues its journey around the continent elevating community voices on Country, airing Tuesdays on NITV and SBS.
SBS's network-wide offering includes ongoing comprehensive coverage across NITV News, SBS News and SBS Audio in more than 60 languages, and live coverage on the day of the referendum on NITV.
Watch the SBS Road to Referendum promo here
As Australia prepares to vote in a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament on 14 October 2023, SBS is continuing to provide multiplatform and multilingual news and information across its network. Over the coming weeks there will also be new program premieres added to its comprehensive referendum line-up, to help Australians make an informed decision when casting their vote.
National Indigenous Television (NITV) will premiere three landmark documentaries which explore First Nations trailblazers over the decades in Rebel with a Cause, the life and work of activist and artist Richard Bell in You Can Go Now, and Indigenous suicide in the Kimberley and the people making a difference in its prevention in Keeping Hope.
SBS will also present special episodes of flagship current affairs programs Insight and Dateline, guest presented by proud Western Arrernte woman, and Walkley award-winning presenter and Executive Producer of Living Black, journalist Karla Grant.
On international current affairs program Dateline, premiering on Tuesday 19 September at 9.30pm on SBS and simulcast on NITV, Karla travels to Norway on a deeply personal journey to understand how the S mi peoples' Indigenous Parliament has worked over the past three decades.
Insight premieres on Tuesday 10 October at 8.30pm on SBS and NITV, bringing together a group of diverse Australians to discuss whether they're planning to vote Yes or No and the conversations they are having with friends, family, colleagues and neighbours to try and sway others to their side.
Feature-length documentary You Can Go Now starring activist and award-winning artist Richard Bell premieres onSunday 24 September at 8.30pm on NITV, SBS and SBS On Demand. The confronting program celebrates 50 years of First Nations activism in Australia seen through the lens of contemporary Aboriginal artist and provocateur Richard Bell.
Examining Bell's extraordinary life and work, You Can Go Now features a wealth of prominent cultural and political personalities such as proud Wiradjuri woman, Minister for Indigenous Australian, Linda Burney, Munanjahi and Yugambeh woman, professor and Indigenist Health Expert, Chelsea Watego, Kamilaroi and Ngemba man, community leader and political activist Bob Weatherall, and many more.
The four-part documentary series Rebel with A Cause celebrates four iconic and outstanding Queensland-based First Nations rebels - Senator Neville Bonner, poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, magistrate Pat O'Shane and media icon Tiga Bayles - who put everything on the line for change. The program airs weekly from Sunday 1 October at 9pm on NITV, SBS and SBS On Demand.
Hour-long documentary Keeping Hope explores the Kimberley region in Australias far northwest, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the country[i] with the vast majority being young Indigenous men[ii]. Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin, The Clearing, Savage River), a proud Nyikina man and actor who grew up in the Kimberley, returns to interrogate these alarming suicide statistics and meet remarkable people making a real difference in suicide prevention. The documentary premieres on NITV and SBS On Demand on Sunday 10 September at 8.40pm and encores on SBS on Wednesday 13 September at 8.30pm.
Tanya Denning-Orman, a proud Birri and Guugu Yimidhirr woman and Director of Indigenous Content at SBS, said: Whether its NITV providing a vital platform for elevating the diversity of First Nations voices, our unique ability to reach and engage Australians in their preferred language through SBS Audio, or trusted and reliable insights into the latest developments from SBS News, across the SBS network we're playing a crucial role in supporting all Australians to be informed when they vote on October 14.
As well as providing trusted, accurate and reliable coverage and context across our news and current affairs, our role as a network is also to inspire all Australians with stories from the world's oldest storytellers. We're proud to premiere new documentaries from NITV as we head towards the referendum, which explore powerful stories of those driving change for a better future in Keeping Hope, and the changemakers and trailblazers who have come before us in You Can Go Now and Rebel with a Cause, as well as adding special episodes of Dateline and Insight led by award-winning and pioneering Indigenous affairs journalist, Karla Grant, to our extensive line-up designed to empower all Australians to be a part of this historic conversation.
Documentary premieres across the SBS network include:
Keeping Hope
Sunday 10 September at 8.40pm on NITV and Wednesday September 13 at 8.30pm on SBS. Also available on SBS On Demand.
This one-hour documentary sees Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin, The Clearing, Savage River), a proud Nyikina man and actor who grew up in the Kimberley, return to Country to interrogate the alarming statistics that the Kimberley has one of the highest suicide
