A coming-of-age adventure about two best friends, Tomias and Dahlia, growing up together on Country, dealing with the dreams and challenges of childhood in a remote Northern Territory community.
Barrumbi Kids
Tomias and Dahlia, Fire Hawk and Crow, have been best friends since forever, growing up together in Mandjarkkorl - FireTree town - a remote Top End community on the edge of Arnhem Land.
Life in Mandjakkorl is never dull for these kids: with crazy cracker nights, lost treasure, huge grass fires, initiation ceremonies, feral chooks, ancestral spirits, outsiders trying to change things and of course, big salty crocs! In short, a whole outback of adventure and sometimes trouble, not that they go looking for trouble…it sort of manages to find them!
Now in their final year of primary school, Tomias and Dahlia know that change is coming and whether they like it or not, they’ll both find themselves torn between loyalty to each other and the growing demands of the outside world.
In this unique and vibrant Australian setting, Barrumbi Kids explores the universal themes of friendship and change, the weight of expectations, of home and culture, and the age-old problem of battling a giant salty that’s moved into your favourite swimming hole.
Episodes
Episode 1 The Burnoff
After ditching school, best friends Tomias and Dahlia have no choice but to fight fire with fire.
Episode 2 Gordon's Boat
Three's a crowd when Gordon, the new kid in town, comes between Tomias and Dahlia.
Episode 3 Big Barra Bonanza
Tomias and Dahlia ditch Lizzie and set out to catch the prize barramundi but a hungry saltwater crocodile has other ideas.
Episode 4 Actual Reality
While out on-country, doing a VR film shoot Tomias, Dahlia and Gordon soon find actual reality colliding with virtual reality when things don’t go to plan and they find themselves stranded.
Episode 5 The Festival
With the Mandjarkkorl Festival fast approaching, Tomias and Dahlia just want to practice their new dance routine, but Tomias’s cultural responsibilities and Dahlia’s family responsibilities pull them in different directions. They both soon realise that getting what they want doesn't feel as satisfying when it comes at a cost to others.
Episode 6 Cracker Night
When Tomias and Dahlia find a box of crackers and decide not to hand them in things quickly get out of hand. Now Tomias and Dahlia must find a way to get Mandjakkorl's Cracker Night uncancelled and prove that they aren’t bad for each other.
Episode 7 Speech Comp
When Dahlia and Tomias pick the same topic for a school speech competition, their research leads them on a treasure hunt, revealing Dahlia's deeper connections to Mandjakkorl but also some great potential danger.
Episode 8 Transitions
When Tomias loses his cousin straight after he arrives back home for initiation ceremony, it fuels his own anxieties around boarding school, whilst Dahlia confronts her own purpose in Mandjakkorl.
Episode 9 Free Range
When Tomias gets offered a place in a Melbourne Boarding School, he doesn’t know how to tell Dahlia, deciding instead to hide it from her, whilst the kids’ band together to free the town chickens, now locked up by Armstrong, an act that will be his undoing.
Episode 10 Barrumbi
Tomias and Dahlia's friendship is in tatters but can a trip to a special place heal both them and country?
ACTF Education
NAIDOC week is an opportunity to highlight First Nations perspectives in the classroom. In 2023, the NAIDOC Week theme is For Our Elders. We acknowledge the continued achievements, contributions, and knowledges of Elders in our communities.
We are proud to present these engaging learning tasks for students in F-10. The leading knowledge holders who feature on our screens are to be shared for NAIDOC and beyond – to celebrate our Elders.
Why and how do we share screen stories about our world? What story would you like to share – and how will you tell it?
In this virtual workshop, ACTF and ACMI Education guide students in responding to screen stories about our world. Suitable for Foundation to Year 2 this engaging workshop explores storytelling, audience, and purpose where students will learn why and how we use screen content to share stories about our world.
This clip collection is designed to help students understand and practice respectful communication, focusing on concepts of consent, bodily autonomy and personal boundaries. Using clips from Australian children’s television content, students work through activities that build their awareness of how to ask for, give, and deny permission.
Access behind-the-scenes materials to support and extend your viewing of Barrumbi Kids.