Synopsis

More than six out of ten who call Australia home have had little or no contact with Aboriginal people. The chasm and disconnect between the First Australians and the rest of the nation is vast.

First Contact shines a light on this deep divide by taking a group of six non-Indigenous people, from different walks of life and with strong and varied opinions, and immersing them into Aboriginal Australia for the first time, revealing Aboriginal Australia in all its beauty, hope, culture, history, tradition and tragedy.

Episode 1

Ray Martin takes a group of six well-known Australians with diverse, deeply entrenched preconceptions and opinions about our nation's Aboriginal people on a journey into Aboriginal Australia. The participants are singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia, ex-One Nation politician David Oldfield, TV personality Ian 'Dicko' Dickson, comedian Tom Ballard, former Miss Universe Australia Renae Ayris, and actress Nicki Wendt. In this first episode, the journey begins in Uluru before host Ray Martin directs the group to Kununurra in the Kimberley, Western Australia, where the Aboriginal community is battling against alcohol, family violence and suicide.

Episode 2

The group heads due south towards the tiny town of Elliott, half way between Darwin and Alice Springs, and a place that has been called the 'forgotten town'. They meet local 'SK' who currently lives in a four-bedroom house with anywhere up to 20 other people. Natalie and Nicki are both shocked by what they are seeing in their own country. Then the six separate as the women head to Cootamundra and the men to Kempsey to visit sites of the former girls' and boys' homes that the Stolen Generations were sent to.

Episode 3

The group finds themselves at the West Kimberley Regional Prison to experience what life is like in an Aboriginal prison. As night falls, they have a decision to make. A cell is available. Who in the group will take up the offering of joining the 10,000 Indigenous people locked up every night in Australia? In the morning, the group heads due east to the tiny town of Coen in far north Queensland, one of four communities to be part of a radical welfare reform experiment. They experience a controversial teaching technique that aims to close the education gap and get Aboriginal kids reading, writing and ultimately into work to escape the cycle of welfare dependency, and debate and opinions are stirred up again.

Episode 4 — First Contact Reunion

For the first time since their immersive four-week journey in Aboriginal Australia, the participants of First Contact season two - singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia, ex-One Nation politician David Oldfield, TV personality Ian 'Dicko' Dickson, comedian Tom Ballard, former Miss Universe Australia Renae Ayris, and actress Nicki Wendt - reunite in a special forum hosted by Rhoda Roberts to discuss their experience and how it has impacted them.

You can get First Contact Season 2 from iTunes.