<
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/24/david-gulpilil-actor-casket-journey-home-documentary>
"He was a man who danced between two worlds, carried stories across continents
and, on his final journey, returned to the land that made him.
Before his death in November 2021, actor David Gulpilil made one final request:
to be laid to rest in his ancestral home, deep in remote East Arnhem Land.
Honouring that wish became a monumental undertaking and the subject of a
documentary releasing across Australia next week called
Journey Home, David
Gulpilil.
It was a profound repatriation spanning more than 4,000 kilometres, unfolding
over almost a year and beginning in Murray Bridge, South Australia, where
Gulpilil was receiving treatment for terminal lung cancer. Planes, boats, vans
and helicopters were variously commandeered to transport Gulpilil’s casket
along the way; there were also long stretches on foot. It traced a path through
landscapes that had shaped the actor’s life and legacy, and culminated in the
place of his birth: Gupulul, on Yolŋu country, on 20 September 2022, almost 10
months after his death.
Capturing this epic journey were film-makers Trisha Morton-Thomas and Maggie
Miles, who have interwoven archival footage into the documentation of
Gulpilil’s “one-way ticket home”, as he called it, and the 10-day funeral
rituals, called Bäpurru, held in Ramingining and Gupulul, that lay him to
rest."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
