Brought to you by Screen NSW – NITV – Screen Australia.

This is the story of the hijacking of an Australian icon.

The Southern Cross is the most famous constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. Ever since colonisation it’s been climbed, appropriate and hotly contested for ownership by a radical range of Australian groups. But for Aboriginal people, the meaning of this heavenly body is deeply spiritual. And just about completely unknown. For a start, the Southern Cross isn’t even a cross – it’s a totem that’s deeply woven into the spiritual and practical lives of Aboriginal people.

Now one of Australia’s leading filmmakers, Warwick Thornton, tackles this fiery subject head-on in a bold and poetic essay-film. ‘We Don’t Need a Map’ challenges us to consider the place of the Southern Cross in the Australian psyche.

Imbued with Warwick’s cavalier spirit, this is a fun and thought-provoking ride through Australia’s cultural and political landscape.