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clip 3Clip description
Sepia-toned footage of a re-enactment of white pastoralists in conflict with local Indigenous people is intercut with an interview with two elders telling us the tale of how the white people took over the land and captured all the Indigenous women. In the old days, the elders tell us, people used to travel by foot to Kurundi, Koronelli and Epenara.
Curator’s notes
Reggie Camphoo Pwerl and Donald Thompson Kemarre tell us a yarn about the history of this area. They sit on the ground and tell us how the whites first arrived in this area, and of the conflict when the pastoralists shot the Indigenous peoples and stole the women. Stylistically, observational-style footage is intercut with historical footage, both real and constructed re-enactment . We as the audience are framed so that we sit on the ground with the elders. The history of the area unfolds like a yarn, and the voices of the two elders, who continually negotiate the story between them, set the tone for this clip and indeed the film. The use of natural sounds occurring in the landscape and the decision not to use a soundtrack allows this clip to be driven by the story as told by these two elders.
