At once benignly mischievous and profoundly serious, “We Don’t Need a Map,” the new documentary by “Samson & Delilah” director Warwick Thornton, explores the Southern Cross constellation, culturally integral to Australia’s indigenous peoples and inevitably massaged and reinterpreted by the white Europeans who later settled the continent

Southern Cross examined in Warwick Thornton's new film We Don't Need A MapIn 2010, filmmaker Warwick Thornton made an off-hand remark to a journalist, suggesting that the Southern Cross was morphing into a racist symbol — like the swastika.

Another of our Sydney Film Festival movies we viewed was WE DON’T NEED A MAP – a documentary from Warwick Thornton. Kernel Jack explains in detail below but basically Thornton is wholeheartedly embracing his backlash from “We don’t want to turn the Southern Cross into a swastika,” and explaining it in a movie.

The Southern Cross has become synonymous with the racist, white nationalism dividing Australian society. Director Warwick Thornton tells Guy Davis why he's taking the symbol back.

Late in Warwick Thornton’s We Don’t Need A Map, Professor Ghassan Hage of the University of Melbourne is talking about stolen land. It’s to be expected in a documentary addressing white Australia’s entrenched ignorance of indigenous issues, ideas and history but Hage isn’t making a point about ignorance, rather one centred on a knowledge that runs to the heart of Australian colonialist identity.

Warwick Thornton's feature documentary about the Southern Cross We Don't Need a Map is the opening night film at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival.

Warwick Thornton didn’t need to open with The Saints astonishing debut single, (I’m) Stranded, to invite comparisons between his no-nonsense filmmaking style and the directness of punk rock.

The Southern Cross is the most famous constellation in the southern hemisphere. Ever since colonisation it’s been claimed, appropriated and hotly-contested for ownership by a radical range of Australian groups.