NITV - Programs and Schedules

[TV.Cynic]

International Women’s Day Collection

Missing From Fire Trail Road

Sunday, 9 March at 8.30pm on NITV Premiere

A riveting documentary detailing the case of Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis, a Native American woman who disappeared in 2020. Her story exposes how Indigenous women continue to go missing in the USA, perpetuating trans-generational trauma.

Living Black: Emily Wurramara – Magic Woman Singing

Monday, 10 March at 8.30pm on NITV

Emily Wurramara is a singer who can’t be contained by one genre. Karla Grant sat down with the talented musician to talk about her life, her new music, and how a house fire wouldn’t define her.

Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again

Monday, 10 March at 9.00pm on NITV Premiere

This documentary shares the powerful story of Mary Two-Axe Earley, who fought for more than two decades to challenge sex discrimination against First Nations women embedded in Canada’s Indian Act and became a key figure in Canada’s women’s rights.

Australian Women In Music Awards

Wednesday, 12 March at 10.45pm on NITV Premiere

An annual celebration which recognises the vast contributions of women, First Nations and culturally diverse female artists, non-binary and LGBTQI+ artists, musicians and music practitioners. In 2024 the event was hosted by Yumi Stynes and Sarah McLeod with performances from Karen Lee Andrews, Sarah Blasko, Kasey Chambers, Dizzy Doolan, Sarah McLeod, MoJu, Katie Noonan, Karin Schaupp and First Nations soprano Nina Korbe.

All titles will be available to stream free on SBS On Demand.

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Pro Bull Riding USA

New Event

Tuesday, 11 March at 8.30pm on NITV

Australian fans are in for a treat! The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Unleash the Beast series is bucking its way onto NITV, bringing all the high-octane action to free-to-air. This season, the world’s best riders will face off against formidable bulls in iconic American cities, battling for the championship title. From the bright lights of Las Vegas to the heartland’s rodeos, witness incredible displays of athleticism in this world-class series, showcasing the skill and determination of these hardened athletes. Get ready for eight seconds of pure adrenaline.

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Home, Land & Sea

Wednesday, 12 March at 7.30pm

Discover the heartfelt and aspirational stories of Māori peoples as they return home, and reclaim and revitalise their land. From grassroots methodology to groundbreaking initiatives, more Māori are reconnecting to the land, rivers and oceans, like never before.

Episode One:
Taiaroa Royal returned home to Lake Okareka, in Rotorua to take over the family farm. The family focus was on transforming their 500-acre land to more sustainable practices and soon discovered that the land offered them so much more.

Episode Two:
Aspiring to be the world’s leading Indigenous food and beverage provider, Kono shows us that Māori values in business pay off and that profit and purpose can work hand in hand.

[TV.Cynic]

Queer & Here - Season 2

Sunday, 16 March at 6.00pm

Queer and Here is a 6-part factual series that pays homage to the LGBTQIA+ pioneers and changemakers across the decades while exploring the modern-day rainbow community in New Zealand.

Episode One: Grayson Goffe - World Pride
Community activator and actor Grayson Goffe heads to Australia to attend the 50 years of world gay pride in Sydney. He gets to hang out with First Nations leaders and trailblazers of the stage and screen.

International Women’s Day Collection

Melanin

Sunday, 16 March at 8.30pm Premiere

Across the world, from Paris to Los Angeles via Cannes, Aïssa Maïga meets personalities committed to promoting diversity in cinema. They share their points of view on the representation of Black women on screen and raise questions about stereotypes or of the glass ceiling. With Ava DuVernay, Chiwetel Eijafor, and Ryan Coogler.

Precious Leader Woman

Monday, 17 March at 9.00pm Premiere

Olympic snowboarder Spencer O’Brien dedicated her life to becoming a world champion, until an unexpected diagnosis changed everything. Precious Leader Woman tells Spencer’s story from childhood to the world stage, revealing how her Indigenous heritage played a role in her journey to surmount the impossible.

Home, Land & Sea

Wednesday, 19 March at 7.30pm

Episode Three:
In 2019, three siblings decided to set up a nursery and give back to their whenua in Taharoa, a remote village on the West coast known for its beautiful lakes and the iron sand mine.

Episode Four:
We are in the deep south with dairy farmer Tangaroa Walker. For Walker it’s not all about cows and milk - it’s about checking in with his staff and looking after each other’s mental health.

Waiting For Harry

Wednesday, 19 March at 10.30pm

Djunawunya, Arnhem Land, July 1978. Frank Gurrmanamana is responsible for preparing the final mortuary ceremonies for his brother who had died six years before. The brother had been buried in Maningrida, but now his remains are being brought back to his home country.

Central to the ceremonies is Harry Diama, the senior blood-relative of the deceased man, but Harry lives in Maningrida and is pre-occupied with a pending court-case involving his son. He is needed to approve each step of the preparations, and is also pivotal in bringing other people to the event, including “men of importance” for the dancing. Harry’s continuing absence puts huge pressure on Frank and upon all of the others who must wait at the ceremonial site.

As the day for the ceremony’s climax draws near, Frank grows ever more anxious about the non-arrival of Harry and the people he is supposed to bring.

[TV.Cynic]

Bring Her Home

Monday, 24 March at 9.00pm

Bring Her Home follows three Indigenous women — an artist, an activist and a politician — as they work to vindicate and honour their relatives who are victims in the growing epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women in America. As they face the lasting effects of historical trauma, each woman searches for healing while navigating the oppressive systems that brought about this very crisis.

[TV.Cynic]

Undermined – Tales from the Kimberley

Sunday, 30 March at 8.30pm

Australia’s vast and unspoiled Kimberley region is under threat, with mining, pastoralism and irrigated agriculture driving an unprecedented land grab. Undermined – Tales from the Kimberley investigates the politics of an area now branded “the future economic powerhouse of Australia,” and what this means for First Nations peoples and their unique cultural landscapes.

As pressure from industry exposes the limits of Indigenous land rights, what will remain of over 200 remote Aboriginal communities? We follow young leader Albert Wiggan, veteran cattleman Kevin Oscar and Senior Elder June Davis through David-and-Goliath battles to preserve their homelands, asking the question: for whose benefit is this development?

Undermined – Tales from the Kimberley will be available to stream free on the Muy Ngulayg Hub on SBS On Demand.

Pro Bull Riding USA New Event

Tuesday, 1 April at 8.30pm

The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Unleash the Beast series brings all the high-octane action to NITV. This season, the world’s best riders will face off against formidable bulls in iconic American cities, battling for the championship title. From the bright lights of Las Vegas to the heartland’s rodeos, witness incredible displays of athleticism in this world-class series, showcasing the skill and determination of these hardened athletes. Get ready for eight seconds of pure adrenaline.

On Tuesday, 1 April, athletes will be battling it out in Indianapolis, Indiana.

[TV.Cynic]

The Last Ice Hunters

Environmental Season

Sunday, 6 April at 8.30pm

One of the least populated places on our planet, merely 4,500 people inhabit East Greenland’s 20.000 km long coast. Only over the last five generations, has the ”modern” way of life penetrated East Greenland. The local population faced dramatic changes, from living in total isolation to integration in our globalised world. Still, in this icy land live hunters and their families, who continue their customs and traditions.

Pro Bull Riding USA

Tuesday, 8 April at 8.30pm

The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) Unleash the Beast series brings all the high-octane action to NITV. This season, the world’s best riders will face off against formidable bulls in iconic American cities, battling for the championship title. From the bright lights of Las Vegas to the heartland’s rodeos, witness incredible displays of athleticism in this world-class series, showcasing the skill and determination of these hardened athletes. Get ready for eight seconds of pure adrenaline.
On Tuesday, 8 April, athletes will be battling it out in Jacksonville, Florida.

[JohnsonTV]

Al Jazeera English acquires Australian Aboriginal documentary Her Name is...

The doc will premiere on Al Jazeera English globally later this month, as well as on its Balkans channel.

[TV.Cynic]

The Frontier

Sunday, 13 April at 7.35pm

This is the true story of the ‘Frontier’, of the ‘Wild West’, and the founding of America.
By the turn of the 18th century, colonial Britain had already claimed land stretching nearly the full length of the east coast of North America. The ‘Thirteen Colonies’ of European settlers were eager to evolve west despite the Proclamation Line of 1763 forbidding expansion past the Appalachian Mountains. This rebellion against British rule would eventually lead to the American Revolution.

Episode One:
As the former British Colonies on the east coast became the United States of America, their sights were now set on what lay west. A ludicrously good land deal with France unlocks a vast wilderness seemingly open for the taking.

Alick & Albert

Sunday, 13 April at 8.30pm

Environmental Season

Even though they live worlds apart, Torres Strait Indigenous artist and activist Alick Tipoti and His Serene Highness (H.S.H.) Prince Albert II of Monaco have united to help protect the world’s oceans.
This is a documentary about two communities on opposite sides of the planet, Monaco and Badu Island, which are concerned by climate change and the many threats to the future of the oceans. Tipoti, a linguist, artist and dancer wants to ensure his Melanesian ancestors’ language and culture continue in Badu and the Torres Strait, while H.S.H. Prince Albert II is committed to the cause of conserving the oceans.

Together, they are determined to make change.

Aquariums: The Dark Hobby

Monday, 14 April at 9.00pm

Environmental Season

Hawai’i is ground zero in the global struggle to save marine wildlife. Aquariums: The Dark Hobby is an expose on Native Hawaiian Elders (kupuna), conservationists and scientists who struggle to ensure the survival of these stunning tiny creatures that are targets of a trade worth billions. Some species have been driven to extinction by collectors, and others are severely diminished.

Ocean Warriors: Mission Ready

Wednesday, 16 April at 7.30pm

A graveyard of shipwrecks lie silently under the crushing waves of the Wild West Coast in Canada; the frigid cold Pacific is unrelenting and once a boat finds itself in trouble, minutes mean the difference between survival and death. While the Coast Guard is there for search and rescue, the time it takes to deploy their vessel from port could mean tragedy for those in distress. And yet, on this magnificent coast lie numerous First Nation communities that are ready to help in any emergency… and they do.

Ocean Warriors follows the four remote First Nations that have joined together with the Canadian Coast Guard to form the Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary. These are highly trained Indigenous men and women willing to put their lives on the line for any emergency in their territory.

Episode One: The Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary’s Ahousaht team searches for a sinking fishing boat with one man on board.

Episode Two: The Ahousaht Coast Guard Auxiliary team searches for a missing diver. Team members recall a devastating boat accident.

[TV.Cynic]

The Frontier - Episode 2

Sunday, 20 April at 7.35pm

As the United States advances west, the true nature of the land is revealed. What appeared to be a boundless empty terrain was in fact a richly inhabited landscape of diverse Indigenous peoples who were not about to surrender their lands without a fight.

Black Gold

Sunday, 20 April at 8.30pm

Black Gold is the story of the cover-up of the century - of the boss atop a trillion-dollar industry who discovered a shocking truth 40 years ago, created a black ops conspiracy to hide the evidence, and would stop at nothing to keep the money flowing as the world burned. A CEO nicknamed Iron-Ass, whistleblowers from Exxon’s own labs, professional climate deniers and spin doctors, a NASA scientist and a U.S. vice president speak to a decades-long plot to trade our planet for profit.

Ocean Warriors: Mission Ready

Wednesday, 23 April at 7.30pm

Episode Three: The Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary’s Ahousaht team searches for a community member last seen on a remote beach.

Episode Four: The Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary’s Quatsino team carries out a risky rescue of a stranded boat in high winds.

The New Boy

Wednesday, 23 April at 8.30pm

From writer/director Warwick Thornton comes the AACTA-award winning film The New Boy, starring Aswan Reid, Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair and Cate Blanchett.

In a remote monastery in 1940s Australia, a mission for Aboriginal children is run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett). A new charge (Aswan Reid) is delivered in the dead of night – a boy who appears to have special powers. When the monastery takes possession of a precious relic, a large carving of Christ on the cross, the new boy encounters Jesus for the first time and is transfixed. However, the boy’s Indigenous spiritual life does not gel with the mission’s Christianity and his mysterious power becomes a threat. Sister Eileen is faced with a choice between the traditions of her faith and the truth embodied in the boy, in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.

[yellow_sock]

A pretty big get in screening The New Boy - which only hit our screens mid 2023. A great film. And was up for quite a few AACTA Awards a year ago.

[TV.Cynic]

The Frontier - Episode 3

Sunday, 27 April at 7.35pm

Mexican-owned Texas offers land and freedom for those white settlers searching for a fresh start but the influx of ‘Americans’ would be the catalyst for the brutal Mexican-American war that would change the course of US history forever.

Black Cockatoo Crisis

Sunday, 27 April at 8.30pm

Western Australia’s iconic black cockatoos are in crisis. Their numbers have fallen dramatically over the past few decades and all three species in the south-west of WA could become extinct in just 20 years unless something is done to protect their habitats. With the loss of the banksia woodlands on the Swan Coastal Plain to housing, Carnaby’s black cockatoos have come to depend on the once vast exotic pine plantations on Perth’s northern fringe.

Black Cockatoo Crisis looks at the plight of our special cockatoos and what we can do to stop these threatened species disappearing for ever.

Ocean Warriors: Mission Ready

Wednesday, 30 April at 7.30pm

Episode Five: After a long day of patrolling the waterways in Quatsino Sound, the Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary team is tasked with searching for the two missing kayakers. As night falls and temperatures drop, the search for the kayakers becomes an urgent mission.

Episode Six: Under optimum weather conditions and current direction, the Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary’s rescue boat can travel up to 50 knots an hour on a rescue mission. The Quatsino team heads to a remote inlet to check on an Elder whose family is worried about them.

[TV.Cynic]

The Frontier - Episode Four

Sunday, 4 May at 7.40pm

The newly acquired territory of California would prove invaluable as the chance discovery of gold unleashes the largest migration in US history and ignites a vicious debate on slavery, culminating in the American Civil War.

Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian

Sunday, 4 May at 8.30pm

Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes an entertaining and insightful look at the “Hollywood Indian”, exploring the portrayal of North American Indigenous peoples through a century of cinema.

Travelling through the heartland of America, and into the Canadian North, Diamond looks at how the myth of “the Injun” has influenced the world’s understanding – and misunderstanding – of Indigenous peoples. Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema’s depiction of Indigenous peoples from the silent film era to today, with clips from hundreds of classic and recent Hollywood movies, and candid interviews with celebrated Indigenous and non-Indigenous film celebrities, activists, film critics and historians.

Diamond meets with Clint Eastwood (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, Unforgiven) at his studios in Burbank, California, where the film legend discusses the evolution of the image of “Indians” in Westerns and what cowboy-and-Indian myths mean to America. Reel Injun also hears from acclaimed Indigenous actors Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves, Thunderheart) and Adam Beach (Smoke Signals, Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers).

Light from the Shadows

Monday, 5 May at 9.00pm

Danny Eastwood is an influential and ground-breaking Australian Indigenous artist who has been working in the Blacktown community in western Sydney for over 30 years. At 68 years of age, he has retired 3 times – but unable to say no, Danny finds himself continuing at a tireless pace. He is a prolific and diverse artist practicing as a cartoonist, illustrator, and painter.

Each fortnight Danny has to complete a cartoon for the Koori Mail – something he’s been doing for the last 20 years. In between these deadlines he travels across Sydney teaching art to inmates from Long Bay jail, Aboriginal Elders, school kids and community groups, as well as working on new public art works. Light from the Shadows gives us an intimate and informative insight into Danny’s remarkable life and politics.

Ocean Warriors: Mission Ready

Wednesday, 7 May at 7.30pm

Episode Seven: Namgis territory covers several islands off of northern Vancouver Island and along the Nimpkish River, making every search and rescue mission challenging. The Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary’s ‘Namgis team searches for a beachcomber missing for two days.

Episode Eight: The ocean is a dangerous work environment, and training exercises and teamwork are critical to the success of every search and rescue mission. The Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary’s Quatsino team practices high speed manoeuvres and crew overboard drills.

[TV.Cynic]

Signed, Theo Schoon

Sunday, 11 May at 8.30pm

Signed, Theo Schoon introduces an influential and at times controversial artist, designer and craftsman. Revealing the effect the pioneering work of an outsider had, and still has, on the New Zealand cultural landscape, we explore the New Zealand context from Schoon’s arrival from Indonesia shortly before WWII, until his premature death in the mid 1980s.

Schoon believed Māori art was, and would continue to be, New Zealand’s “most important cultural accomplishment.” As Schoon questioned the existing European and Māori visual arts canons in search of a modernism his own outsider eyes and heart felt Aotearoa (New Zealand) deserved to reinvigorate both Pakeha and Māori art.

Dig Deeper

Monday, 12 May at 9.00pm

Dig Deeper is a thought-provoking delve into the fascinating and at times confronting lives of four uniquely different Indigenous Australian artists who share a common thread between their art, their Aboriginality, and their dual heritage. How do you talk about these things that have happened to you and from your history? Are you angry, provocative or can you engage in a deeper way and focus more on the regeneration of cultural practices?

Featuring Blak Douglas, Maree Clarke, Penny Evans and Ben McKeown.

[ElCapitanCranky]

Erm…what does Super Mario Bros have to do with indgoenois culture?

Because that is whats on NITV right now.

[JohnsonTV]

Legends of the Fall (which starred Brad Pitt) was on NITV on Wednesday night, and it had nothing to do with Indigenous culture either.

[ElCapitanCranky]

I support the idea of having a channel like NITV in the general mix of broadcast media.

But the choice of content needs to be looked at. Hollywood movies with no link to First Nations/indigenous culture can go to the other SBS channels or elsewhere.

[Jack_Laverty]

What about SBS World movies?

[yellow_sock]

This is nothing new. NITV has aired Super Marios Bros and The Flintstones (and other random movies) mulitple times before. And has been brought up here a few times a year.

I understand that it may be hard to fill this channel with a specific branding. But work needs to be done. Indigenous Music show Volumz used to be a late night filler which has dissapeared. I liked this show.

Slow TV or a long form of Bamay can air on thos channel of needed.

SBS World Movies is there for random US Movies

[NormanBates2021]

lol

sbs “world” movies

most of them are hollywood

[TV.Cynic]

Geoff Dixon: Portraits Of Us

Sunday, 18 May at 8.30pm

Geoff Dixon’s art reflects his vision for our future unless we take immediate action; he worked as a conservationist long before the word became part of our everyday vocabulary.

His paintings are rich with colour, commentary, and a challenge to all of us to wake up and think about the future of our wildlife, our flora and fauna, our country and our planet.

New Zealand-born and now living and working in north Queensland, Geoff grew up and discovered his sexuality in the conservative Christchurch of the early seventies. The film introduces us to the people who influenced him and who believed in him over the years. We find out about his travels, his ups and downs, what led to his strong sense of the environment and why the symbols of bird life have come to inhabit his paintings.

Ochre and Ink

Monday, 19 May at 9.00pm

Ochre and Ink tells the extraordinary story of artist Zhou Xiaoping and his inspiring 23-year collaboration with Aboriginal artists in outback Australia.

Trained as a traditional Chinese brush painter in Anhui Province, Xiaoping arrived in Australia in 1988 knowing almost nothing about the country. On a whim, he travelled to the heart of the outback, where he was surprised to see Aboriginal peoples for the first time. He became fascinated by their art and cultures, and they welcomed him into their communities where the artists showed him their techniques of painting with ochre on bark.

Now Xiaoping is visiting the famous artist Johnny Bulunbulun and his family, working on paintings for a major exhibition to be held in Beijing, on the theme of the 300-year trade in Trepang (sea cucumber) from the Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia via Macassan traders to China.

Bill Reid Remembers

Monday, 19 May at 9.30pm

Bill Reid Remembers is a beautiful tribute from Alanis Obomsawin to her friend’s remarkable life and rich legacy. Despite spending his early life away from his nation’s culture, renowned Haida artist Bill Reid always kept Haida Gwaii close to his heart.

While working for CBC Radio, he started learning how to make jewellery, then later sculpture, using Haida techniques and images, a move that would forever change his life and the Canadian artistic landscape. Reid’s powerful narration in the film—interspersed with Obomsawin’s own—recounts his complex childhood, his emergence as an accomplished artist, and his profound connection to his homeland. Decades after his passing, Bill Reid remains an enduring force and one of Canada’s greatest artists.

[TV.Cynic]

Sydney Opera House Presents - Season 2

Saturday, 24 May at 10.30pm

Following its debut last year, Generations and Dynasties returns in 2025. This year’s series features four extraordinary First Nations creative and musical families who will share their stories, talents, and legacies through captivating conversations and soulful live music.

Generations and Dynasties delves deep into the heart of First Nations storytelling, a tradition passed down through generations. It’s a celebration of the profound connections that have shaped each family member’s creative journeys, filmed at the iconic Sydney Opera House

Season Two, Episode One: William Barton and Aunty Delmae Barton
William Barton is an acclaimed didgeridoo player, multi-instrumentalist and composer celebrated for his unique fusion of traditional Indigenous music and contemporary influences. Aunty Delmae, a celebrated singer, songwriter, poet, and visual artist, has shared her gift globally—from Australian stages to international stages in Europe and Asia.

Together, the dynamic mother-son duo beautifully exemplify the richness of First Nations culture and its profound impact on the arts.