Women of the Sun

Women of the Sun
Genre	Historical drama
Written by	Sonia Borg and Hyllus Maris
Directed by	James Ricketson David Stevens Stephen Wallace Geoffrey Nottage
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English, Yolngu Matha
No. of episodes	4
Production
Producer(s)	Bob Weis
Editor(s)	Edward McQueen-Mason
Running time	60 mins
Release
Original network	Australian Broadcasting Company SBS Television
Original release	July 1981
Chronology
Followed by	Women Of The Sun: 25 Years Later

Women of the Sun is an award-winning Australian historical drama television miniseries that was broadcast on SBS Television and later the Australian Broadcasting Company in 1981. The series, co-written by Sonia Borg and Hyllus Maris, was composed of four 60-minute episodes to portray the lives of four Aboriginal women in Australian society from the 1820s to the 1980s. It was the first series that dealt with such subject matter, and later received several prestigious awards including two Awgies and five Penguin Awards following its release. It also won the United Nations Media Peace Prize and the Banff Grand Prix in 1983.

The first episode, titled Alinta: The Flame, dealt with the first contact between tribal Aborigines and Europeans. Set in 1820s, the story begins when two English convicts are found washed up on the beach by the Nyari. They are nursed back to health by the tribe, providing them with food and shelter, despite warnings by the tribal elders. The tribe is eventually encountered by early Australian settlers searching for grazing land. Their culture and rituals are threatened by these newcomers, who begin to settle on their lands, and leads to the annihilation of the tribe. Alinta (Yangathu Wanambi) and her child are the only survivors and the episode ends with Alinta determined that her daughter "carry the torch for her culture and the future".

Maydina: The Shadow takes place in the 1860s and follows a young Aborigine woman, Maydina, who lives with a group of seal-hunters. It is revealed that she was abducted by the hunters as a child and, after years of abuse by her captors, she attempts to escape with her half-caste daughter Biri. They are taken in by Mrs. McPhee, founder and head of a church mission, where mother and daughter are separated when Maydina is employed into service with the church. While there, she and another Aborigine man fall in love and attempt to leave with Biri so that can return to their traditional life and culture in the Australian Outback which the Europeans think is devil art. Mrs. McPhee sends troopers after the three and soon catch up to them. The man is shot and killed by the soldiers while Maydina's child is presumably taken away from her permanently.

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