Trailer
Plot summary
Arnhem Land, before any Western influence. A group of ten men sets out on a goose hunt, and a narrator tells of his ancestors. Minygululu, the leader of the hunt, has brought his younger brother Dayindi, who wants Minygululu's youngest wife. Minygululu answers with a story from a time further back: the warrior Ridjimiraril and his younger brother Yeeralparil, who also wants Ridjimiraril's youngest wife. A stranger visits their camp, and Ridjimiraril's second wife goes missing. The hunt is shown in black and white and the old story in color. The elder tells the tale to show Dayindi what a husband and a senior man in the camp must carry. The characters speak Yolŋu Matha, and the narrator speaks English.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ten Canoes (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ten Canoes is the first ever movie entirely filmed in Australian Aboriginal languages. The docudrama is partly in color and partly in black and white, and largely uses a narrator to explain the story.
- The film's title came from a 1936 photograph by anthropologist Donald Thomson of ten canoeists poling across the Arafura Swamp, which director Rolf de Heer discussed with David Gulpilil.
- Rolf de Heer rejected claims that, as a white director, he was making an Indigenous story, saying the Indigenous actors largely told the story and he was the mechanism by which they could.
- Ten Canoes sparked worldwide interest in Yolngu culture and led to the spin-off educational project Twelve Canoes, made with the people at Ramingining: a website, videos and study guide on twelve subjects, shown on SBS TV and still online as of 2024.
