A published version of a talk given at Murdocch University in 1995, this paper frames the discussion on Anne Pratten's 1992 short film Terror Nullius, with regard to the social and historical screen representations of indigenous peoples by white Australians. As leseur notes, 'past (and some contemporary) images of Aboriginal Australia have not been altogether favourable. Mainstream film and photographic practice has mythologised and stereotyped Aboriginality in contradictory and ambivalent ways... [and that] Pratten's Terra Nullius exposes the tricks of the Australian colonial family.