Intervention, The

Fires are a harsh reality of life in the bush ... secrets cannot survive a scorched earth ... In 2007, a report from the Northern Territory detailed widespread sexual abuse of Aboriginal children ... The Federal Government took extreme action ... In the Territory, a wild fire was about to begin ... Families would be managed by the Federal government, access to cash and alcohol would dry up. All children would have a medical. Truancy would not be tolerated. Police numbers would increase, Aboriginal townships would be seized for five years, and the permit system to gain entry into communities would be scrapped. Teams of federal police, public servants and soldiers were dispatched into seventy-three remote communities in the Northern Territory.

After the beginning of the intervention, the filmmakers spent twelve months recording personal experiences in four remote communities, near Katherine in the Northern Territory, that are the focus of this documentary.