In the beginning, when the world was soft, Creation beings lifted the earth out of the sea. Then the world became hard... Colonisation, slavery, mining booms... A comprehensive account of the experiences of the Aboriginal peoples of the Fortescue River and surrounds from pre-colonial times to the 1990s. Made with the Yindjibarndi, Ngarluma, Banyjima and Gurrama people of Roebourne, Pilbara, in Western Australia. This film makes the connection between Aboriginals in chains in the 19th century and Aboriginal people in prisons today, so providing a deeper understanding of how the violence and denials of the past inform the present. It argues that the relentless removal of the native people into coastal ghettos has led to the community's current problems. Yet it never allows the viewer to forget the significance and influence of spiritual homelands, the bedrock upon which their tribal law is based.