Witnessing the plight of Australian Aborigines helped inspire Oscar-nominated US actor Casey Affleck to raise awareness of struggling indigenous cultures.
Affleck features in a new television series called 4 Real, in which celebrities such as Joaquin Phoenix, Cameron Diaz and Eva Mendes travel to some of the most remote communities in the world where inspiring leaders are trying to improve the lives of the people who live there.
Along with music producer Sol Guy, Affleck visited the Pawnee Nation reservation in the US state of Oklahoma to witness the challenges facing the Native American people who live there.
The 32-year-old, whose brother is actor Ben Affleck, said he signed up to the show to help turn the spotlight on some neglected communities.
"4 Real is always kind of shining the light on these darker corners of the world, places where there are people struggling and you don't really hear that much about them, either because no one really cares to tell that much about them or because there's someone else who doesn't want people to know what's going on," he said.
"There are poorer places in the country and in the world, and on the surface it doesn't look like a group of people who are on the brink of extinction, but that's sort of exactly what's happening.
"They're trying to hold on to all their own traditions and their language and their medicine, and all these different things that are completely foreign to the rest of us."
Affleck said there were parallels between the challenges faced by Native Americans and indigenous Australians.
He said he was amazed to see evidence of discrimination and racism during a visit to Australia in the 1990s.
"We drove from Sydney out to Alice Springs and kind of all around the outback, and I was amazed at how much it was like the old wild west in America," Affleck said.
"This was just in the 1990s, and there was little wooden signs nailed to the trees on the outside of town that would say 'Abos go around' and I just couldn't believe that kind of stuff still existed."
Affleck, who was nominated for an Academy Award for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, by Australian director Andrew Dominik, said he was pleased to see small improvements both in Australia and the US but more needed to be done.
"I know that (in Australia) you've got the dual names for the national parks, like Ayers Rock is called Uluru, and finally some of the Aboriginal heritage is being recognised and I think that's great," he said.
"And in very, very, very small steps the same thing is happening here for the Native Americans.
"But I think it's largely due to the fact of their own resourcefulness and determination and their character, and not because of the goodness of our collective heart."
Affleck learnt about the program through his brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix, who travelled to the Brazilian Amazon as part of the eight-part series which will screen on the National Geographic Adventure channel in May.
Series producer Josh Thome said they were considering filming an episode in Australia in the second series.
AAP