Walkabout To Hollywood: dance

David Gulpilil visits the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre in Redfern and teaches dance to young Aboriginal people. He's a great teacher and the students have big smiles on their faces as they follow his moves. In voice-over Gulpilil says: 

The urban Aboriginal people lost their identity, lost their land, lost their tribe, lost their language, lost their everything that white men came and destroyed. [The way] Aboriginal people live is more natural. No tin lying down, no grog, no smoke, no clothes. We live with our Mother Earth. And fresh, just like animals living in the bush. The missionaries came and tried to change - make us Christian. You know, believe in Jesus Christ and believe in all those things ... but what about our culture? The missionaries never ever study it very slowly. They don't know nothing about the culture or languages or who we are ... What about the history of our peoples that you could teach your white children to understand - just like any other country.

In the conclusion of the clip voice-over narrator Robert Powell says 'David doesn't live in the past. He brings his traditions with him into new worlds.' 

Notes by Beth Taylor