'A Larrakia man and traditional owner of the Darwin region in the Northern Territory, Kootji initially travelled to Perth in the late 1970s to play football for West Perth while studying art at Claremont College. After knee injuries curtailed his football career, Kootji taught art and football at Clontarf Aboriginal College later enrolling in a fine arts degree course at Curtin.
It was there that he met filmmaker Paul Roberts in 1993 and began a collaboration that continues to the present day. In 2000 Kootji and Paul completed Land of the Little Kings, which won the 2000 Human Rights Award for television that year and is generally regarded as the seminal documentary work on the issue of the stolen generation.
Kootji has gained numerous production credits including Assistant Director on The Mary G Show and directed Cooking Capers for ABC Television's Message Stick among others. He continues to paint and his art works have appeared in over a dozen exhibitions nationally and in 2003 he was awarded a Masters Degree in Fine Arts. ' (Source: Ronin Films website www.roninfilms.com.au)
