TV Eye: Harsh reality a welcome break

Fish out of water: <i>The Circuit</i> centres on an idealistic mixed-race lawyer on the court circuit around Broome. Photo / Supplied

One of the most powerful documentaries on right now is not the Hollywood-generated The Pacific, but rather one that is flying a little lower under the radar, on Maori TV on Tuesdays.

First Australians, the seven episodes of which took six years to make, is a remarkably detailed examination of the relationship between the Aboriginal people and the British colonisers from the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney in 1788 until the 1990s.

Using photos, interviews and stunning landscape footage, First Australians is unflinching in its depiction of Australia's colonial history - "a history so shameful", according to Professor Marcia Langton, one of the academics featured in the series, "it is not taught in Australian schools".

I remember once being told by a Victorian Tourism person that Melbourne's history began in 1835, as if no one had been there before then. I had no idea how bad its history was until I watched episode three this week, about the mission station Coranderrk, a community set up by the Wurundjeri clan - who'd been pushed out of the land that had become Melbourne.

It started out well enough, but it ended in a heart-breaking mess of broken promises and pure racism, topped by the Half-Caste Act, which destroyed families.

A week earlier, First Australians told the story of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania, almost wiped out by a policy of genocide.

Next week's episode deals with white settlement in central Australia in the mid-1800s and the rampages of a homicidal constable. It all makes for potent, very disturbing viewing.

First Australians directly informs The Circuit, a new drama series which screens on the same night, same channel. Starring the excellent Gary Sweet as a magistrate working the 2000km court circuit around Broome, it focuses on young mixed-race lawyer Drew Ellis (Aaron Pedersen), brought up in privileged circumstances in Perth, and an idealistic fish out of water in this rural world.

He is married to a white woman and knows nothing about his ancestors because his father was a stolen person.

As his sidekick Sam, an Aboriginal, tells him, he has the piece of paper but doesn't know where he is from. Awash in what he calls a "sausage factory" of alcohol, drug and domestic abuse and frustrated by what he perceives as his people's apathy, Drew initially has difficulty winning the trust of the community.

The cases are many and varied, like an old man repeatedly arrested for drinking in the park while (as Drew points out) white people drinking in the same spot are ignored by the cops.

There are humorous moments, like the Aboriginal man charged with fraud because he took tourists on tours of fake sacred sites. "Sir!" he cried to the magistrate, "they ruin the real sites!"

But the ongoing story, so far, involves a troubled teenage girl whose parents are both in jail.

The magistrate has signed her over to her grandfather, a friend of the court - and, they discover shortly afterwards, a paedophile.

They live miles away, so the race is on to try to save her.

Both programmes are real gems I'm excited about watching, even if - or because - they deal with tough realities.

They make a refreshing change from the fluff on the other channels.