Sunday 1 June 2008

Ten Canoes - an Indigenous Australian perspective

An Australian movie.
Directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr.
Written by Rolf de Heer

Further details: Official website (very informative) IMDb

This movie came about when director Rolf de Heer was invited by famous indigenous Aussie actor David Gulpilil (here credited as David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu) to make a movie with him. The resulting film was inspired by the photo shown here taken by DF Thompson in the 1930s, of 10 bark swamp canoes. By using the detailed information gathered by Mr Thompson, Rolf de Heer and a community of Yolgnu people in Arnhem Land were able to recreate the images of that time and long before for this film.

But now you seen my story. It's a good story. Not like your story, but a good story all the same.
At the end of this story, the narrator David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu highlights what is the delight of this story - it is a good story, but so unlike the kind of story that we would tell in the West. The whole nature of the story is fresh and light to my ears - from the language and accent used, to the pace of it, the observations made and aspects highlighted, and the simple way of describing things. As it is set in a time well before European settlement the way of life depicted is refreshingly simple and so connected to the land and in tune with Nature.

Rolf de Heer sums this up best in his 'making of' documentary:
The cosmology of the Yolgnu people is an entirely other cosmology than ours. The universe is a different place. The way of thinking is therefore different, and the language, apart from being structurally different, describes different things. Ours is a language of classification and categorisation; theirs is a language of connection and unity. Everything is all one.
We can learn from the Yolgnu people and their stories that the prevailing modern view of the world isn't the only way. Typically we seek to divide and classify our world into boxes and certainties, and then seek to control those aspects to keep everything understood and linear. This approach has many benefits, as evidenced by the wonder of our modern technological age, but we are lucky that there are many other worldviews out there and more fortunate still that there are many other cultures in the world that have kept these outlooks alive for us to learn from and share.

I look forward to a near future where as the modern, affluent societies share their knowledge and technologies with the developing world, that in return we learn some of what is in the gaps between the categories and classifications of our world. This movie and Waris Dirie's books (see earlier post) show the magic of a simple life close to Nature and the deep connection that it brings to our deeper Selves, yet these are also obviously very often harsh lives, that would benefit enormously from some modern knowhow and resources. As we come closer together as a world, which we inevitably will, the whole will become greater than the sum of the parts as we learn to live simply, in touch with our true nature, while at the same time enjoying the benefits of this connected modern world.

In this Ten Canoes project, the impact of this sharing was clear, and I recommend the 'making of' documentary as much as the film for this reason:

The crew and I go back with a deeper understanding, not only of this culture, but of all cultures, including our own. But the set builders and the canoe makers and the actors have achieved something far beyond anything they ever thought possible; they've brought back from a faraway place some of their culture.

They now walk just a little bit taller among us Balanda (white people); a bit more sure of themselves. They speak with more confidence than they did before. They seem to feel better about their world. In strengthening their culture, they've also strengthened themselves.

It is a lesson to us all.

Rolf de Heer

We live in a world of astounding diversity. As we become more individual and unique, we express our true Selves, and so we also become more the same and more united - and we recognise the magical place that the world has always been!

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