David Vadiveloo

David Selvarajah Vadiveloo is an Australian screen director/producer, educationalist and human rights lawyer. He is a Board member of the Institute for Cultural Diversity^[1] and regular consultant to the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation.^[2] He is married to Inupiat filmmaker and educationalist Rachel Naninaaq Ewardson ^[3] and is the founder and director of the media entertainment and social justice company Community Prophets. The company facilitates socio-economic reform programs and produces and teaches film and television in partnership with marginalised communities.

Early life and education

Vadiveloo holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia and a Graduate Diploma in Film and Television from the Victorian College of the Arts at University of Melbourne, Australia.

Awards

His work in the 1990s and early 2000s in film and human rights saw him awarded the 2005 Australian Human Rights Commission Award for Individual Community Achievement for his work with Indigenous and marginalised youth.^[4] In 2005 he was also the youngest person to be Highly Commended for the Human Rights Medal (Australia), recognising lifelong commitment and achievements in human rights.^[5] Vadiveloo's films have received numerous nominations and awards including the 2002 Canadian Golden Sheaf Award for Best International Documentary,^[6] the 2005 Australian Interactive Media Industry Association Award for Best Interactive Learning^[7] and 2009 Australian Film Institute nominations in both Drama and Documentary.^[8][9]

Career

Legal career

In 1993, before his legal career had begun, Vadiveloo's admission to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory was opposed by the Government of the Northern Territory based on an alleged lack of commercial legal training received during the mandatory post-studies practicum year under the Australian system. The presiding Judge, Olney J, rejected the Government case and held that Vadiveloo's life experience and work at the Aboriginal Central Land Council in Alice Springs and a local commercial firm was sufficient for him to gain admission. Vadiveloo went on to work as a solicitor and barrister for several years in the Northern Territory of Australia, including work on the successful Native Title Application, Hayes v Northern Territory,^[10] brought by the Arrernte people of the Alice Springs region.

In 1996, Vadiveloo was a policy advisor to the Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner of the Australian Human Rights Commission. He facilitated national community consultations with Indigenous and culturally diverse communities about the operation and effectiveness of the Australian Racial Discrimination Act. These consultations formed the basis of the 1996 State of the Nation Report,^[11] delivered by the Race Discrimination Commissioner.

Film career

In 1998, after completing the Victorian College of the Arts Film and Television post-graduate degree, Vadiveloo returned to Alice Springs and established a media program at the Irrkerlantye Learning Centre, working with Indigenous children from the Town Camps of Alice Springs and re-engaging them with schooling through media. This program led to partnerships with the Arrernte families of the region and the production of his multi-award winning short film Bush Bikes (2001)^[12] and then Australia's first Indigenous television series, the AIMIA award-winning Us Mob (2005).^[7][13] Vadiveloo's documentary Trespass (2002), about the Mirrar leader Yvonne Margarula and her battle to stop the Jabiluka mine site, won multiple awards^[6] and his documentary Beyond Sorry (2004) about Australia's Stolen Generations premiered on Australia's ABC Television and was a festival favorite at the 2004 Sydney Film Festival.

In 2009, Vadiveloo was nominated for two Australian Film Institute Awards. He directed and wrote the half-hour crime drama Burn (2008), created with at-risk inner city youth, which was nominated for Best Short Fiction Film.^[8] He also directed, wrote and co-produced the best documentary nominated series, Voices from the Cape (2008),^[9] which followed a media program run by his company Community Prophets, in the Aboriginal community of Aurukun in Cape York, Australia. Both films received nominations for Best Director at the Australian Directors Guild Awards in 2010.^[14]

Vadiveloo founded the media entertainment and social justice company Community Prophets in 2005 with the express aim of using media to empower marginalised youth and facilitate socio-economic reform programs in partnership with marginalised communities.

Vadiveloo sits on the International Advisory Board of the charity Global Angels and on the advisory board of the Centre for Cultural Partnerships at the University of Melbourne.

Bibliography

• Vadiveloo, David (2007). "A time for empowerment or a new digital divide? " in da Rimini, Francesca and d/Lux/MediaArts "A Handbook for Coding Cultures" (2007)
• Ginsburg, Faye (2006) "Rethinking the Digital Age" in Toynbee, Jason & Hesmondhalgh, David (2008) "The media and social theory" p136

References

^{[4] [5] [15] [16] [13] [17] [8] [9] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]}

External links

• Community Prophets
• Us Mob
• Burn
• Voices from the Cape
• Living Next Door to Alice
• Movie making project boosts school attendance
• David Vadiveloo: grass roots reconciliation
• Life Matters Feature Interview: David Vadiveloo
• Aboriginal Town Camp School
• Coding cultures
• Mulka Media Centre