Storyboarding in Ten Canoes

Though the work of anthropologists remains contentious, sometimes their records are all that First Peoples have to reclaim culture.  

Donald Thomson was considered an advocate for First Peoples, and his work as an anthropologist contrasts the contested practices of his peers. Thomson disavowed the idea that people in the south had “entirely lost their culture”, a common stereotype that has led to the characterisation of Yolngu as more ‘real’ and ‘authentic’ than their southern counterparts.

Today, many First Peoples make use of anthropological collections to reclaim and revitalise culture, just as the Yolngu have done in making Ten Canoes.

When legendary actor David Dalaithngu and director Rolf de Heer decided to make a film together, Dalaithngu proposed a story inspired by the ethnographic images Donald Thomson took around Arnhem Land in the 1930s. One image, reproduced here, shows men canoeing across a swamp and was re-created in the film, like many of Thomson’s photos were. 

Filmed in Arnhem Land with a cast of local Indigenous Australians, Ten Canoes interweaves two tales of forbidden love and consequence, spanning thousands of years of Yolngu storytelling, and is told entirely in language.