The Federal Government will provide $530,000 over two years to support First Nations training and career pathways at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS).
Supported through the National Cultural Policy, the grant will allow AFTRS to establish The First Nations Bridging Program, offering participants a bespoke combination of training, placement, mentoring opportunities, and community support based on First Nations students’ needs, interests, and ambitions.
The funding will also support a training audit of current First Nations employment and training within the screen sector to provide AFTRS, screen agencies, and the industry with a clear map of the needs and gaps, as well as the areas that are well supported.
Arts Minister Tony Burke made the announcement at the AFTRS graduation ceremony last Friday, where he told the students they were “some of the best-equipped people in this nation, to make sure Australia knows itself”.
“To imagine our nation without our stories is to image a place where none of us would want to live,” he said.
“We’ve invested in you. Don’t stop imagining.”
It comes a week after AFTRS was allocated $23.2 million over four years as part of an Arts8 collective Federal Budget funding package.
In welcoming the announcement of further funding, AFTRS council chair Rachel Perkins emphasised the importance of the graduates’ endeavours.
“[AFTRS] is here to benefit you, but it is also here to benefit the country,” she said.
“Taxpayers invest in this institution because they believe that the stories we tell are significant to our country and will move our country forward and inform our country at times of crisis; inform our national identity and make us evolve as a people. You are the creative lifeblood that fuels the industry, and that will change the industry.”
Last Friday’s ceremony saw 158 students graduate from the 2023 academic year.
The event included the announcement of the Women in Cinematography Prize, presented by Sony to AFTRS Bachelor of Arts Screen: Production graduate, Mia Schirmer.
The night before graduation, six graduating First Nations students were honoured at a ceremony attended by Elders, First Nations community members, and industry colleagues, including Indigenous alum.