Conversations with Dundiwuy Wanambi

1995, 50 Minutes

This is a personal film about Dundiwuy Wanambi made up mainly of interviews filmed at Yirrkala and at his Marrakulu clan centre between 1970 and 1982.

The 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.

In the early years Dundiwuy is one of the heavy drinkers. In an interview in the pub he explains why he drinks. Then through a dream he realises he must start looking after his family and his clan. He establishes his Marrakulu clan homeland centre at Gurka'wuy some 150 kilometres south of Yirrkala on the beautiful Trial Bay, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. He will hold a great ceremony here.

Years pass and Dundiwuy returns to Yirrkala. His clan is small and he does not receive the necessary support from his sons. But Dundiwuy struggles on and through the postscript we learn that he has now become a prize-winning and much sought after artist.

A Film Australia National Interest Program produced in association with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.