Here's my Hand (documentary excerpts)

Stella Motion Pictures

Celebrating #NAIDOC Week (annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia) with excerpts from a documentary we shot for director Michael Edols - ‘Here’s my Hand: Testimony to an Aboriginal Memorial’. Hard to believe that a Treaty has still not been established some 37 years later! This film also celebrates the late actor and dancer David Gulpilil.  Trivia not so trivial: the end shot of this film was the last shot of the day and this deeply marked all of the crew present at the time: the celebrations of Australia Bicentennial celebrations in Sydney took quite a different meaning when juxtaposed with the Aboriginal memorial (burial) poles standing in front of them. All of us remained deeply silent for quite a long time... #documentary #aboriginal #naidoc #DavidGulpilil

Transcript

00:00For more information, visit www.fema.org

00:30In 200 years people almost wiped out all Aboriginal culture and there's in some ways they're still

00:59trying to do that.

01:29The holologue, burial poem.

01:53My hand and your hands are different.

02:06My life, your life are different.

02:12Like this.

02:13Burial poems.

02:14They're all different but they all have histories.

02:19We the Aboriginal people in Australia would like to give to the white people in this country

02:32our hand.

02:33Our hand of friendship and hopefully understanding of what Aboriginal culture is all about.

02:39What the burial polls mean in terms of Australia's future would be that it's a realisation of

02:46a rather disastrous, in some ways, 200 year history of relationship between white people

02:52and Aboriginal people in this country.

02:54We accommodate all what's happened in the past and build on this new relationship so that

03:15the spirits of the past can be put to rest and the songs can be sung for the Aboriginal

03:20people that were not sung in the appropriate way in the past.

03:24Hey, I want to take you a special journey with me.

03:37You want to come along?

03:41Well, I want to come along?

04:03Well, I think it's great.

04:06This is river, on the bank you see

04:18Dupun, Yiricha, Joa, Dupun, Baduro.

04:26Nishayrit man can read, just like in the book.

04:31Our ancestors gave this law.

04:34And today, still living, just like this river, strong.

04:43And now I'm going to take you and show you my songs of my people.

04:49You can see some of this picture here, a fish called Brimfish, Mirke.

05:05Dupun, Baduro.

05:09You can see some of this picture here, a fish called Brimfish, Mirke.

05:17And here are Caterpillars, and here is Bustaka, and the Parson Snake.

05:25And down here, there's Wanjie, all along here.

05:33Wanjie, Wale, is the food, Bustaka and Caterpillars.

05:38As you see in this picture here, it's a totem pole, all the way up, and up there, and Caterpillar,

05:49which they leave amongst the Bustaka, called Brimfish and Wanjie, along the Bustaka leaves.

05:58So we paint this, represent our tribe, Kunggitalaonan, and Mandalpengu, they both won.

06:14We always look for right people to paint, and to understand that every little pattern to put on,

06:28on top of that prayer pole, have to be experienced.

06:37And know the old custom from the beginning, which been given by our ancestors.

06:44And every man and woman have to celebrate, and dance, and say goodbye.

06:51We call it Bukubut.

06:54Bukubut means end of the alive, or the history for that man who passed away.

07:05It's like a very special feeling.

07:12Just like praying, best of days, for ever and ever. Amen.

07:19Thank you very much.

07:21Thank you very much.

08:38My father, my great-grandfathers, I followed you.

08:56I'm here.

09:26I'm here.

09:28I'm here.

09:30I'm here.

09:32I'm here.

09:34I'm here.

09:36I'm here.

09:38I'm here.

09:40I'm here.

09:42I'm here.

09:44I'm here.

09:46I'm here.

09:47I'm here.

09:48I'm here.

09:49I'm here.

09:50I'm here.

09:51I'm here.

09:52I'm here.

09:53I'm here.

09:54I'm here.

09:55I'm here.

09:56I'm here.

09:57I'm here.

09:58I'm here.

09:59I'm here.

10:00I'm here.

10:01I'm here.

10:02I'm here.

10:03I'm here.

10:04I'm here.

10:05I'm here.

10:06I'm here.

10:07I'm here.

10:08I'm here.

10:09I'm here.

10:10I think that what Australia Day means to me, and I think what it means to a lot of Aboriginal

10:14people is somehow different to what I think it means to a lot of white people.

10:18We all belong to each other.

10:20And so Australia Day, I think, still hasn't got that essential element in it which makes

10:26us really appreciate what we are as Australians and what Australia means to us and all of what

10:32Australia is, its spirituality, its symbolism, its depth, its history and all of that, the good

10:37and the bad.

10:38And the essential element that's missing, in my opinion, is Aboriginality, Aboriginal people,

10:46Aboriginal religion, Aboriginal culture, Aboriginal views on all sorts of matters, whatever

10:53they may be.

10:54And I think that's the essential element that's missing.

10:56And we're struggling to get that together, to get Western civilization with Aboriginal culture.

11:03And I don't think we've really got it together.

11:06Perhaps we can have a meeting of the minds and a meeting of the cultures.

11:11And then we can probably start talking in real positive terms about a treaty.

11:16I think, in my opinion, and I'm sure I reflect the opinions of most Aboriginal people, we have

11:22to have a treaty.

11:23Because a treaty does a number of things.

11:26It's a reconciliation between two separate races in this country.

11:31It's a development of a better relationship.

11:34It's a reflection on the past, but not letting the past control the future.

11:39It gives us an opportunity to build the future together, of an understanding of the past.

11:44But white people have got to understand Aboriginal culture, to understand the past and to understand

11:49the future.

11:50Otherwise, the future has no meaning.

11:53The future has been given to us as well as possible.

11:55What?

11:57What?

11:58What?

12:00What?

12:01What?

12:02What?

12:03What?

12:04What?

12:05What?

12:07What?

12:08What?

12:10What?

12:12.

12:19.

12:24.

12:26.

12:27.

12:32.

12:34.

12:36.

12:37.

12:38.

12:39.

12:40.

12:41our culture goes back way way way back

13:05our ancestors know that

13:35the

13:39the

13:43the

13:47the

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Transcript

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