He also learnt much about the history of the area from the Aboriginal perspective, which involved "chaos" and massacres of Indigenous people, although this was not taught at his school.
[5] He established a production facility called Burrundi Pictures[1] and narrow cast television station in Darwin, and started directing, producing and photographing drama, documentaries, television commercials, animated films, corporate films and music videos the country, including in remote communities in the NT.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Johnson directed music videos by Yolngu and balanda (non-Aboriginal) band Yothu Yindi.
[10] Johnson said that High Ground was 20 years in the making,[3] having first talked about his ideas for the film with Patricia Edgar, founding director of the Australian Children's Television Foundation, in the mid-1990s.
[15] Yolngu Boy and Johnson's direction of an episode of the children's TV drama Out There also earned AFI (the forerunner of AACTA) nominations.