About the Project
Big River is a short film directed by Daen Sansbury-Smith and produced by Blak Crow, exploring the dream and story behind Uncle Selwyn Burns’ original song Big River.
Uncle Selwyn recounts a powerful dream in which he saw the Old People of the Yorta Yorta Tribe living freely along the Murray River, practising their cultural ways before European settlement. The film journeys into that vision, tracing the deep relationship between the Yorta Yorta people and the river that continues to sustain life, identity, and spirit.
Through story and song, Big River becomes a meditation on memory, culture, and the enduring presence of the Old People, revealing how ancestral knowledge continues to flow through modern creative expression.
Creative Process
Filmed on-Country in Cummeragunja and along the Murray River, the film follows Uncle Selwyn as he returns to his homelands to share the story behind his song.
In collaboration with The Yung Warriors, a new generation of artists, the project culminates in the remaking of “Big River” in studio — blending past and present through music, storytelling, and cultural expression.
Cinematography, performance, and sound design come together to explore where ancestral memory, cultural practice, and contemporary art intersect in modern times. The river becomes both a metaphor and a mirror — reflecting the continuity of story and the resilience of culture.
From the Artist — Daen Sansbury-Smith
When Uncle Selwyn described his dream, it was like he was describing a portal — a way of seeing time layered across the present.
Travelling with him to Cummeragunja, standing by the water, and watching The Yung Warriors bring new life to his song reminded me that art and music are vessels for ancestral memory.
Big River is about how stories move — through sound, through people, through Country.
It’s where the old and new meet, where we see how creativity continues to keep our ancestors’ voices flowing through us.
Community & Partners
Created by Blak Crow / Adjadura Studio
Featuring Uncle Selwyn Burns and The Yung Warriors
Filmed on Yorta Yorta Country (Cummeragunja) along the Murray River
This project celebrates intergenerational collaboration — showing how story, song, and art remain living expressions of cultural continuity, carried by both the river and the people who honour it.
