The First Inventors

6.0

2023•47m

Rob Collins and a team of First Nations investigators delve into 65,000 years of Aboriginal Australian invention, looking at how landscapes were transformed, how events were recorded, the use of navigation tools, and how societies were organized.

Trailers & Videos

The First Inventors | New Episodes Weekly | Available on SBS On Demand

Behind the Scenes

Seasons

4 Episodes • Premiered 2023

1. Design To Survive

Rob Collins and his team explore the innovative creations that enabled First Nations people to thrive, ranging from transforming volcanic terrains into fish farms to mastering the art of harnessing dangerous fire for survival.

2. Episode 2

Can oral stories accurately store vital knowledge? A bold expedition sets out to prove that the First Nations science of storytelling recorded ice age events ten thousand years ago.

3. Episode 3

Vast communication networks, trade superhighways and sophisticated kinship systems. First Nations people built an extraordinarily connected society on this enormous and often inhospitable continent.