Big Girls Don’t Cry is a 30 minute documentary about three Aboriginals, two women and one baby girl going through their struggle to survive Kidney Disease.

The prevalence of kidney disease is overwhelming in Indigenous communities. Darwin has an incidence ten times higher than anywhere else in the country, with 80 per cent of that the sufferers being Aboriginal. It is difficult to watch the impact of renal disease on Mariah, who has lived with it since she was a baby, as well as elder and activist Essie Coffey OAM, who lived with renal disease in her final years.

The title Big Girls Don’t Cry comes from an affirmation Essie Coffey’s family uses in the film. Essie Coffey eventually succumbed to a common cold, her immune system so weak she could not fight it off.

This is a very moving film, and the strength of three women - Essie Coffey of the Muruwari clan, Mariah Swan of the Kamilaroi clan, Glenda Kerinaiau of the Tiwi clan - who lived with, and continue to live with, renal disease. It will touch your heart.

26 minute documentary
National Indigenous Documentary Fund Series 5
Directed by Darrin Ballangarry

A heart-rending insight into the disease of end-stage renal failure in remote and rural communities.

Big Girls Don’t Cry is about the strength and resilience of three people and their families coping with end-stage renal failure.

Mariah Swan (from Moree) gets a kidney transplant at 18 months of age and now we visit her when she is 10 years old.

Glenda Kerinuaia (from Bathurst Island) chooses to self-administer Peritoneal Dialysis so that she can participate in the cultural and family life of Tiwi Island.

Essie Coffey OAM (from Brewarrina) speaks poignantly of the hardship associated with Haemodialysis. Essie tells us of her cultural dilemma in receiving a kidney transplant. Eventually with her weakened immune system, the common cold claimed her life.

Renal physicians tell us what it means for Indigenous Australians living with debilitating renal disease in remote and rural communities.

Too many Aboriginal people are succumbing to the lifestyle disease of end stage Renal Failure. In the Renal Wards of the Northern Territory, 3 Aboriginals die every month and as quickly as they leave another takes their place. It is fast becoming the number one killer of Aboriginal people throughout Australia.

Ronin Films are in the educational distributors of this film.

Credits

Producer              Priscilla Collins
Commissioning editor (SBSi)     Ned Lander
Executive producer         Cathy Eatock
Co producer             Darrin Ballangarry
Director             Darrin Ballangarry
Writer                 Darrin Ballangarry
Cast                 Brenda Coffey
Loreen Coffey
Nellis Coffey
Sharon Coffey
David Craigie
Dr Johnathon Craigie
Barbara Ewans
Dr John Knight
Dr Paul Snelling
Angie Swan
Mariah Swan

Acknowledgements
Script editor        Alec Morgan
Script consultant     Tom Zubrycki
Produced in association with SBS Independent.
Produced with the assistance of the Indigenous Branch of the Australian Film Commission.
This film is a part of the ‘National Indigenous Documentary Fund Series 5′.