The Great Regional City Challenge welcomed Roger Scholes' latest project, Reading Plipatumila River Country

Best known for writing and directing the award-winning feature film, The Tale of Ruby Rose, Roger Scholes has received critical acclaim for much of his cinema and TV-released work.

As part of his latest artistic venture, Mr Scholes wants to take viewers on a boat trip down the South Esk and Tamar rivers, while Indigenous elders, historians and farmers share the story of Tasmania's cultural heritage.

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"My father, who was a fly-fisherman, would often take me to different spots along the South Esk," he said.

"I wasn't very interested in the fishing, but I was certainly interested in the river."

Mr Scholes hoped that the project, Reading Plipatumila River Country, might enable the community to see the land as it used to be, to ensure the public could understand more about why First Nations people feel so connected to their country.

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"This story will teach us a way to view land as a place that is not separate from us, but rather as something that is a part of us," he said.

"We have come from the European farming consciousness, which is based upon ownership, whereas first Tasmanians had no concept of such things ... they were living with the land and caring for it in the same way that country cared for them."

The idea was proposed as part of the Great Regional City Challenge and early calculations estimated it would cost $9000 to complete, due to factors such as boat hire, travel and post-production. If successful, the project would give elders Aunty Patsy Cameron and Uncle Harold Riley the chance to further educate the community about the lifeworld of the First Tasmanians.

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Uncle Harold said he planned to detail the relationship between land and water.

"To have healthy people you need healthy water and produce, but to have both of those things you need healthy land, which can be achieved through cultural burning," he said.

"There only needs to be one thing out of balance and the rest will be too."

A group of Tasmanian historians including Henry Reynolds are also expected to appear as a part of the screen story, if the project is successful. Mr Reynolds said he would primarily focus on the the history of the first settlement that arrived in Tasmania in the early 1800s. "The South Esk was an important part of the early settlement in the area," he said.

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