Natasha Wanganeen (born 20 June 1984) is an Aboriginal Australian actress. She is known for her starring role in the 2002 feature film Rabbit-Proof Fence, aged 15, and numerous television roles. Her debut film as co-writer and co-producer is the 2022 short film, an Indigenous sci-fi drama entitled Bunker: The Last Fleet, about an alien invasion of Australia, in which she also takes the lead role.
In June 2020, Wanganeen was writing a script for her own independent film, Battle of the Ancestors, set 60,000 years ago against a backdrop of Aboriginal mythology, including Dreamtime stories and characters she knows from here childhood years. She is being supported by Screen Australia and the South Australian Film Corporation in this endeavour, and is in talks with local production companies who are interested in seeing it made.[2]
Originally intended as a sci-fi series,[2]Bunker: The Last Fleet, co-written by Wanganeen, Stephen Potter, and Rowan Pullen, directed by the latter two, and co-produced by the three of them and others,[10] was inspired by Afrofuturism.[2] It was first released as a short film, with the intention of growing into a feature film. It had its Australian premiere at the St Kilda Film Festival in June 2022, with multiple screenings following around Australia (including Revelation Perth International Film Festival and Adelaide Film Festival) and internationally. Wanganeen plays Tjarra, an Aboriginal warrior in Australia 37 years in the future, and Kaurna elder Uncle Fred Agius plays the role of an elder. Trevor Jamieson (who is a cousin) gave cultural advice and also plays a role in the film.[11] The film was filmed entirely in the South Australian desert.[12] As the first Aboriginal sci-fi move, it is described as a "cheeky take on the First Fleet in Australia".[11]
In 2018, Wanganeen advocated for greater cultural diversity in Australian screen culture, saying "There are not enough black faces on our screens and talking about it is a constructive conversation that we need to have".[15] She expressed her pleasure at the portrayal of Aboriginal people in Cargo (2017) as "living free and strong on the land".[16]
^ abWanganeen, Natasha (3 January 2019). "Top Shelf: Natasha Wanganeen"(audio & text). Radio National (The Screen Show) (Interview). Interviewed by Di Rosso, Jason. Originally aired 12 July 2018. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 30 June 2020.