05/06/2024
My film ‘Revisions’ is premiering this weekend at the 40th St Kilda Film Festival. It was filmed in the Tanami Desert in the towns of Yuendumu and Nyirripi, in collaboration with the Warlukurlangu Art Centre and British artist, Patrick Waterhouse.
In 2014, Patrick Waterhouse went to Warlpiri country for the first time. He had been taking photographs in Central Australia since 2011 while acquiring documents that retrace Australia’s colonial history. Waterhouse presented these photographs, along with archival material obtained from museums and auctions, to the members of the Warlukurlangu Art Centre and invited them to revise the documents through the traditional Aboriginal technique of dot painting, practiced by almost half of the community’s population.
Drawing upon their own stories and traditions, the artists – a group of men and women aged from 16 to 90 – applied layers of colourful patterns and symbols to the documents, that depicted their own Jukurrpa (dreaming). This process can be seen as defacement, a correction of what was there, or the revelation of something that had always been hidden beneath the surface. The resulting work confronts Australia’s colonial narrative with its Aboriginal history, which began more than 60,000 years ago.
The film was initially made to be played at the entrance to the exhibit where the artworks are displayed. So far, the exhibit has travelled to Germany and The Netherlands. It’s my pleasure to finally share this film and have it premiered at such a great festival. It has also been accepted into Melbourne Documentary Film Festival and will hopefully make it into some others around the country. I look forward to sharing more about this in the coming months!