WARWICK Thornton was basking in the success of his award-winning feature film Samson and Delilah in 2010, when one simple remark prompted widespread national outrage.

“I’m concerned the Southern Cross is becoming the new Swastika,” he said.

Like many Australians, the Alice Springs-raised Mr Thornton could see parallels between the hijacking of the two symbols for the extreme nationalist cause.

The Swastika, a Sanskrit symbol for good fortune, is now synonymous with death in the west, after being adopted as the symbol of Germany’s murderous Nazi Party in the 1930s.

Similarly, the Southern Cross has been adopted in Australia by the extreme right-wing as a symbol of bigotry, hatred and nationalist pride, though obviously not to the same, murderous extreme.

The Southern Cross, along with the Australian flag, is the favoured symbol of groups such the anti-Muslim Reclaim Australia and United Patriots Front movements.

Simply put, Mr Thornton said, the Southern Cross has been “hijacked by dickheads”.

Seven years on, the 2010 Australian of the Year nominee has made the symbolism of the Southern Cross the subject of a new documentary, We Don’t Need a Map, screening as part of the Sydney Film Festival.

Mr Thornton told ABC Radio National’s Awaye program the vehement reaction to his 2010 comparison of the Southern Cross and the Swastika took him by surprise.

“People got very upset, and that scared the hell out of me,” he told the program.

“I went and hid in the cupboard for a little while, and then over a couple of years, I got angry.”

The result was We Don’t Need a Map, a kind of Australian road trip that examines the spiritual importance of the five constellations to the country’s indigenous people and how, among nationalist groups, the Southern Cross morphed into a symbol bearing such potent power.

“This is the story of the hijacking of an Australian icon,” goes the promotional slogan.

Mr Thornton is hoping to prompt a national discussion about the symbol, though perhaps one a little more measured than the one that followed his comments seven years ago.

“Where do we stand? Are we standing with our chest all puffed out, wrapped in the flag, afraid that someone’s coming to steal our beers and barbecues?”

“It might be time we have a serious and sober conversation about our national symbol and ask the question, are we becoming dickheads?”

The celestial Southern Cross, only visible in the southern hemisphere, not only formed an integral part of the Aboriginal Dreamtime, it more famously became the symbol of the 1854 Eureka Rebellion on the central Victorian goldfields, in which oppressed miners swore allegiance to it in their revolt against the colonial authority.

While the spirit of the Eureka Rebellion has seen it remain a favoured symbol of the far left and trade unions, it has, since the 1980s, been far more potently adopted by the far right.

In the film, Mr Thompson interviews a diverse array of Australians about the Southern Cross, from tattoo artists — many of whom refer to it as the “Aussie Swazi” thanks to ubiquitous requests for the symbol — to academics, artists, advertisers and, of course, Aboriginal people.

He also interviews former surf lifesaver Phil Dennis, who had the Southern Cross tattooed on his back 12 years ago in honour of his great uncle Percy who died at Gallipoli, and Percy’s son Sydney, who perished in WWII.

He got the tattoo, he said, to honour his heritage and to reflect his pride in his family and his country.

Then things changed, he wrote in an opinion piece for the ABC last year.

“I got that tattoo before Cronulla. I got that tattoo before Bendigo,” he said, of high profile race riots and anti-Islam protests, where the Eureka flag was prominently displayed.

“Since then, groups such as Reclaim Australia and United Patriots Front all have used our flag, our symbols, to hide behind. To peddle their view point, their propaganda.

“My Southern Cross has been hijacked.

“At first I didn’t realise the impact it would have. But as summers passed; on the beach teaching nippers, at the pool teaching kids how to swim and eventually as a teacher, teaching surfing, I have heard passing comments, fragments of conversations from parents, peers and students on how they interpret the tattoo on my back.

“The person they see in the symbol I wear is not who I am.

“I’m not a racist, a bigot or violent.”

Also among the interviewees in We Don’t Need a Map is Big Day Out founder Ken West, who banned the Australian flag from the national festival in 2007, because of its corruption as a symbol of racism and bigotry.

Being in front of the camera is a departure for Mr Thornton, for whom Samson and Delilah, his first feature film, won him the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Camera d’Or prize in 2009.

The film was described as a “survival love story”, depicting two Aboriginal teenagers who steal a car to drive to Alice Springs.

In the end, he said the exploratory documentary taught him a lot, even mellowing that forcefully-held opinion that catapulted him into the centre of a national debate in 2010.

“The irony is, after making the film, I won’t judge that book by its cover any more,” he told Radio National.

“Hey, I might even get a Southern Cross tattoo.”

We Don’t Need a Map is showing at the State Theatre on Sunday and Tuesday, as part of the Sydney Film Festival. After the screening on Sunday is In Conversation with Warwick Thornton, starting at 3.45pm.

Click here for tickets.