‘Korraiyn’ is the term for sea in the local language of the Wathaurong people of Victoria. It is also the story of the 2013 Australian Indigenous Surf Titles that took place at Bells Beach, Victoria and the intimate connection with land and ocean shared by all Indigenous Australians. With stunning visuals and a smooth emotional soundtrack, this is surfing like you have never seen before.
Tracks spoke with producer Ben Smith from NITV about making Korraiyn.
Q. Tell me how you got involved with this project?
We went down to cover the Indigenous Surf Titles more for a short format coverage but once we got down there and met some of the characters and saw the imagery we were getting we made a decision to make a long for documentary out of it.
Q. Who were some of the people that helped make the documentary possible?
We got a lot of great assistance from Steve Parker from Surfing Victoria he’s the Indigenous Aquatics Manager down there. It just grew from there.
Q. What stories to you stood out?
The underlying story throughout the documentary is the connection to country and to the ocean. Probably what we didn’t capture was the camaraderie there. It’s a sporting competition but that kind of melted away a lot once these guys got together.
Q. With than non-competitive aspect did you see a lot of Aboriginal people come together not dissimilar to a corroboree?
Absolutely, I’m Aboriginal myself and it’s one of the more important things especially whenever any group of Blackfellas get together there is that sense of camaraderie, sense of family and one big mob. There are people from all over Australia coming together and all of those lives of difference just melt away. I think sport is very important for Aboriginal people and it’s very important for bridging the gap between Aboriginal people and the wider audience as well.
Q. Tell me about some of the characters down there?
Robbie Page who actually had a car accident on the way down to the event and he wasn’t going to come. But everyone kicked in to get some money together to get a plan down for him. He’s really well respected within the Indigenous surfing community and he was one of the stronger characters in the documentary.
Q. In the documentary we’re shown a sacred Aboriginal site near Bells Beach that houses lots of shell middens. Tell us about that?
There thousands of those sites around Australia where saltwater people have been living for eons in those areas. They are very spiritual, very deep meaningful places for Aboriginal people and that particular site there all the Indigenous surfers would of visited that site and spent a bit of time there.
Q. It comes across throughout the documentary that Bells Beach is this real spiritual place. What kind of effect did it have on you personally?
That was the first time I’d been to Bells and to me it was a very spiritual time down there for me. Early morning is a big part of surfing culture and I was down there before dark and just seeing the sunrise down there really effected me to the point where I decided to use that for the opening titles sequence of the documentary.
Q. What are you hoping the audience can appreciate about Korraiyn?
I think it’s really important for all of the viewers to understand that sense of connection Aboriginal people have no matter where they are in the country whether it be in the ocean or the middle of Australia or some of the islands in the Torres Strait. Country and land are first and foremost four our people and once we have that connection and we are all together everybody is welcome and everybody can take part in that as well.
Korraiyn (sea) will be air on Sunday, 24 November at 8:00pm on NITV
Click here to watch the trailer for Korraiyn and see more programs from NITV.
