Henry Carter Hull

Profile of the great Sioux warrior and mystic medicine man who led his people in a bloody struggle for survival against the encroachment.

Daily life and technology of nomadic Aborigines of the Western Desert. A man prepares gum from spinifex, which is used as a general purpose cement, he strikes stone flakes for tools. He leaves his camp at Badjar.

Two men of the Western Desert chase amamu or evil spirit out of camp. Both men are mapantjara, men who have the power to remove powerful bones or stones from their stomachs and use them for medicine and dealing with the spirits. They chase the mamu away by removing bones from their stomachs and hitting these along and into the ground with their spear-throwers.

When built in the 1960s, the mining town of Nhulunbuy had an instant population of about 4000, making it one of the largest towns in the Northern Territory. With the town came a hotel—and alcohol. The face of the Gove Peninsula—with its forests, swamps, rich coastline and sacred sites—was transformed overnight. So too were the lives of the Yolngu.. In 1969-1971 the Yolngu tried, unsuccessfully, to stop this invasion and exploitation of their...

In 1970 Ian Dunlop began a long-term film project with the Yolngu of Yirrkala for Film Australia. Pain for This Land is a general introduction to the Yirrkala Film Project. The film begins in 1970 with a village council meeting. Chairman Roy Dadaynga Marika explains how he envisages the film project—it should be a history covering three elements, the Yolngu, the Mission, and "that which is going to worry us in the future": the mine. Then different...

Daymbalipu Mununggurr was one of the most respected and influential leaders of the Yirrkala Aboriginal community. This film deals with his concerns during the tumultuous years when the Nabalco bauxite mine first came to the Gove Peninsula. In particular the film shows the quiet but strong way he communicated with the people who came to the area as a result of the mining project.. The film is made up of four discrete sequences shot in 1971 and 1974....

This is a personal film about Dundiwuy Wanambi over the years that Ian Dunlop knew and worked with him. It is made up mainly of interviews filmed with Dundiwuy at Yirrkala and at his Marrakulu clan centre at Gurka'wuy between 1970 and 1982. This film reveals something of the struggles, and the thoughts, of one man in the face of the huge changes brought about by the coming of the Nabalco bauxite mine and the mining town of Nhulunbuy to the Gove Peninsula.....

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Macassan traders visited the north coast of Australia. They came to collect and process trepang, or sea cucumber, which they traded mainly to China.. The Yolngu accepted the presence of these outsiders and in turn traded with them for metal tools, pipes and tobacco. The Macassan story became part of Yolngu mythology. The sailing away of the Macassan boats at the end of the trepang season has now become a symbol...

In 1976, Ian Dunlop was invited by Dundiwuy Wanambi, a leader of the Marrakulu clan, to Gurka’wuy on Trial Bay in the Gulf of Carpentaria. He wanted Film Australia to record the first major Marrakulu ceremony to be held at Gurka’wuy since its recent establishment as a clan settlement. While they were there, a baby boy died. The Madarrpa men, including the child’s father and Dundiwuy, asked for the funeral to be filmed.. Mortuary rites of the...

Narritjin Maymuru, leader of the Manggalili clan, was one of the people Ian Dunlop worked with most closely during his long term film project at Yirrkala. This is a personal and sad film about Narritjin—artist, thinker, and passionate interpreter of the world through his Yolngu beliefs.. Narritjin is sitting on the verandah of his house at Yirrkala quietly painting. It is early 1974. He talks about the troubles with the mine and alcohol amongst...