A mockumentary by Aboriginal filmmakers that was pulled from a recent short film festival has been screened as part of the Dark Mofo winter festival in Hobart.
The nine-minute film 'My Journey' from kutikina Productions explores the issue of Aboriginality in Tasmania, through a single fictional character played by a white actor.
Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) people Nathan Maynard and Adam Thompson made the film through their new production company.
"The purpose of this was to get in front of an audience and start a conversation and today that happened," Mr Maynard said.
"Our voice is constantly being undermined by people that can't prove their connection to our community and the state government is enabling that."
'My Journey' was due to screen in April at GRIT, a short-film initiative run by Wide Angle Tasmania which invites film makers to tackle socially significant issues but it was pulled from the program due to concerns around potential defamation and community harm.
At the time the filmmakers said it amounted to censorship.
An audience of around 200 viewed the film at Hobart's Odeon Theatre on Saturday as part of Dark Mofo.
The film-makers and actor Kerri Gay participated in a question and answer session following the screening.
Dark Mofo's outgoing Creative Director Leigh Carmichael said he was concerned "whenever an artwork is censored".
"It's important that we provide a platform for Tasmanian Aboriginal voices," he said.
"And while the subject matter of this film may be challenging, it also offers an important insight into the complex dynamics, and cross-cultural issues faced by the contemporary Palawa/Pakana community."
Under Tasmania's previous policy, implemented in 2005, people had to prove their Aboriginality using a three-part test which included documentary evidence of ancestry.
Since 2016, people only require self-identification and communal recognition.
"Our community expects a lot more, and that's why in the film it should be up to us to determine who we are, not some white government," Mr Thompson told the audience during the Q&A.
In the 2016 census, 23,000 Tasmanians identified as Aboriginal or Islander.
At the most recent survey in 2021, that number had risen to 30,000.
Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson said that he had not seen the film.
"I do know that we as a government have deliberately wanted to include people who have Tasmanian Aboriginal ancestry to allow them to be recognised and included," he said.
"And that is something that we think has been an important step for our community, notwithstanding the fact that some don't agree with it."
The film is set in the small Tasmanian town of Smithton in Tasmania's far north-west.
Its municipality of Circular Head has the greatest proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the state, making up 17.3 per cent of the total population.
The Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation is based in Smithton and is not aligned with the prominent Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.
A member of the organisation attended the screening and provided a statement to the ABC in response to the film.
"CHAC are not going to do anything to add to the abuse of its chair, staff and community," it said.
"That includes engaging in associations with this film evidently fuelled by racial hatred.
"CHAC encourage anyone from Smithton who feels attacked by this film to come be with their community as we support our mob through this. This is not about politics, this is personal and we will take this time to care for our mob."