It was smoke before lights, camera, action when the cast and crew of the about-to-be-filmed movie "Mother Mountain" took part in an indigenous smoking ceremony at Mystery Bay on Sunday.
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The film written by Celina Stang explores long-held cultural stereotypes of the modern Aboriginal family with a dysfunctional Jewish family from Sydney.
Cultural advisor on the Mother Mountain set is well-known author and film producer Fran Dobbie, of Earthstar Productions, who has long-held family connections with the Yuin people.
Initially filming will take place at Blue Hills farmhouse at the foot of Gulaga Mountain in Tilba.
"We will be filming at the farm house in Tilba for about three weeks before we take to the road where we will be filming scenes around the area," Ms Dobbie said.
"There will be scenes shot the Tilba Hall, Bermagui Wharf and in Narooma at the Quarterdeck and Narooma Public School.
"Excluding unexpected interruptions filming is expected to take about five weeks finishing on or around December 12 and debuting sometime next year," she said.
Leading actors are Fayssal Bazzi, who plays Dean the husband, Emilie Cocquerel, who plays his wife Selene and Willow Speers who plays their daughter Sharni, with Jarrah Levett playing Ren her indigenous friend.
Mother Mountain explores a relationship between a Jewish and Aboriginal family through the coming-of-age friendship between their children, Lenin and Ren, in the beautiful surrounds of the South Coast, the Yuin people's spiritual and cultural home. Some cast and crew met at Mystery Bay Cottages for a smoking ceremony before filming started. Yuin elder, Aunty Vivienne Mason, gave the Welcome to Country.
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Aunty Vivienne asked everyone to respect the land. She explained about the smoking ceremony and urged people to step forward and breath in deeply the healing smoke.
Founder of the Gulaga Dancers, Warren Foster snr along with Nicholas Hoskins and Warren Foster jnr performed the smoking ceremony with each person individually stepping up to breath in the healing smoke.
Following the smoking ceremony writer Celina Stang thanked the Yuin people saying the film Mother Mountain explored the impact of historical persecution and intergenerational trauma between two of the worlds oldest cultures.