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Ten Canoes (2006)

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clip The ancestors coming education content clip 3

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

The narrator (David Gulpilil) introduces his ancestors, as they walk into the bush on a hunting trip. Minygululu (Peter Minygululu) leads the column, followed by his younger brother Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil). Djigirr (Peter Djigirr) complains about being at the back of the column, which makes everyone laugh. The men then begin to strip bark from the trees, to make canoes.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

Donald Thomson’s ethnographic images, made in the 1930s, have become a treasured resource for the people of Ramingining, and they were a direct inspiration for the film. Most of the men in this hunting party are related directly to people in Thomson’s photographs. Casting was partly dictated by these kinships. The look of this section is deliberately ethnographic, suggesting an idea of a pure culture in its pristine environment, but Rolf de Heer quickly subverts that, when the men start to joke about farting. David Gulpilil’s opening narration is also playful, closer to folktale than the traditions of anthropology. These techniques shift the ownership of the tale, from external to internal. This is not, in that sense, a story that has been ‘collected’, but a story that is given directly to us. That is part of the film’s appeal – it is an act of great generosity.

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