indi

Ten Canoes
A film by Rolf De Heer and the People of Ramingining.
Recent release DVD

Ten Canoes is a parable from Australia’s ancient past. It is a story, within a story, within a story and actor, David Gulpilil, is our narrator. He introduces us to his ancestors, a family tribe of the Arafura Wetlands of Central Arnhem Land. Minygululu a warrior and a man of some standing amongst his people has three wives, the youngest of whom is coveted by Dayindi (played by Jamie Gulpilil) Minygululu’s brother. Dayindi’s feelings are well known to everyone and are the source of much leg pulling and ribald humour amongst his peers. Minygululu takes the opportunity of a hunt to address the situation and, as Dayindi is young and in need of guidance, Minygululu relates to him a story of their ancient ancestors in which Ridjimiraril, the elder of two brothers, is a great warrior with three wives. Ridjimiraril’s younger brother is in love with the third and most beautiful of the wives, but does not know how to further this relationship.
In the ancient tale, a stranger comes to their camp, ostensibly to trade, but his presence makes the tribe ill at ease, and this bad feeling lingers long after the stranger leaves. The story tracks the path of Ridjimiraril for whom things begin to go badly and when his second wife mysteriously disappears, loses his soul to bad spirits. The action constantly shifts between time frames but the director, Rolf De Heer uses the simple device of black and white film for the Ancestors and colour for the Ancients ensuring we do not lose the thread of the story. The conclusion is as unexpected to us as it is to Dayindi and if one were to look for a moral, it would probably be “be careful what you wish for”.

The scripting is informal yet charming, using the parallel stories to show this culture’s astonishing depth of history. The story is told with liberal amounts of humour showing that even the humble “fart joke” transcends time and culture. The Ramingining people are not trained actors, that much is clear, but they are all telling the same story, which is the primary and most important function of any cast and herein lies the genius of De Heer. He gives the cast room to “be” and allows the narrative to unfold in it’s own time, in it’s own way. Gulpilil once again demonstrates why he is so highly regarded as an artist in this country. Ten Canoes illustrates beautifully the meaning of ensemble casting.

Ten canoes is breathtakingly beautiful. Director of Photography, Ian Jones, clearly defines the difference between being “from” a place and being “of” a place. This film gives an amazing insight into life in Australia before white settlement. It is wonderful to see a movie in which Aboriginal people are not depicted as downtrodden and oppressed. Indeed the European invasion does not factor at all, although the metaphors are there if you care to look for them.

With Ten Canoes, Aboriginal representation in films has finally cleansed itself of the embarrassing and persistent stain of “Crocodile Dundeeism” and all it’s accompanying cliches. Ten Canoes takes Aboriginal culture out of the history books and museums where it has been held captive for so long and places it firmly in the present with an optimistic future.

Anyone who has in the past dismissed Indigenous culture as simplistic and primitive, needs to reassess their position. It is shown here to be gracious, witty, sophisticated, buoyant and tightly governed. The DVD offers Gulpilil’s narrative in both Aboriginal and English but I urge you to use the subtitles, so you can appreciate the amazing rhythms and cadence of a language sired by story telling.
Ten Canoes is a remarkable and classy film of world standard.
A must see, I give it nine and a half out of ten.