Return to Camp Concern (2026)
film (17 minutes)

The man people knew as Strider spent a lifetime walking his own path. A legendary and often controversial activist,  a prophet, and bush philosopher in the Top End, he lived on the fringes, fought impossible battles and inspired activists, artists and misfits who crossed his path.

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In 1975, Strider co-founded Camp Concern, a remote protest camp established in support of Mirarr resistance to uranium mining in what is now Kakadu National Park. For almost four years, he and fellow campaigners endured monsoons, isolation and political hostility, helping spark one of Australia’s earliest environmental campaigns, a story now largely forgotten.

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Forty years later, in the midst of a more personal battle, Strider embarked on one final pilgrimage back to the place where it all began. Armed with little more than a mud map, memories, stubborn determination and a wicked sense of humour, he journeys into the heart of Kakadu to revisit the ghosts of old battles and reflect on a life lived in fierce opposition to the status quo.

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Filmed during what would become one of Strider’s final adventures, Return to Camp Concern is an intimate, funny and unexpectedly moving portrait of an unforgettable local Darwin character. Part road movie, part environmental history, and part meditation on mortality, the film captures a vanishing generation of activists whose stories risk disappearing with them. ​At its heart, Camp Concern asks what remains after a lifetime of resistance and what the places we fight for reveal about us.

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Direction, production, editing: Caddie Brain

Featuring: Hip Strider, Wendy Sarkissian, Michael Fonda and friends

Additional Camera and Editing: Brendan Phelan,, Jack Bullen

Post-production:  PLRX

Music: Hover I — Andrew Bird, Ethio Invention No. 2 — Andrew Bird

Audio mastering: Matthew Cunliffe

Archival photographs and video courtesy of: Baz Ledwidge, Wendy Sarkissian, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Supported by: Environment Centre NT 

Special thanks: Liam Golding, Irene Henry, Billee McGinley

Made on Larrakia and Country

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