[children singing indistinctly] [speaker 1 speaking foreign language] [children singing in foreign language] - The children are singing ♪ Come here crocodile.

♪ Big nose big nose ♪ Passing through the mud [Speaker 1 laughing] [soft music] - Let's track him [tense music] [dog barking] [eerie music] - Yeah that's him.

[horn music] - [David] I've been working long time now.

I've done many movies.

I don't know how old I am.

I think I'm 48, 50.

I don't know what year I was born.

[] - David, I apologize for interrupting your dancing, and I apologize to the children as well, but I've got rather a surprise for you.

- Yeah.

- Right now on that camera, we are on national television, and David Gulpilil, this is your life.

[David laughing] How are you?

[audience applauding] Congratulations.

[soft music] - David is arguably the most experienced and accomplished film actor in Australia.

He's been in so many movies over the years.

When we are thinking about who to play the part of Mudu, the Aboriginal tracker in "Rabbit Proof Fence".

He was just the logical choice.

I don't think any other actor in Australia could have delivered what David delivered to us.

- Hey tracker girl, your dad's bringing Olive back.

He catched her.

[tense music] - Watching David demonstrate to me how a real tracker would operate was fairly interesting because he revealed a knowledge of the landscape of rocks, of every blade of grass.

It's almost as if, if nature had been disturbed, even minutely, then his acute radar could immediately pick it up.

- [Director] Okay, now turn around and step in the same ones.

[crew laughing] - Okay, keep going, don't miss.

- [Director] If she creates two hills like that.

- I know that one.

- The first scene we were shooting with David and David came to the set.

I explained to him the scene, and I could see that he was perturbed by something.

I asked him what's the matter.

He said, "Well look, I can find these kids.

I can find them anywhere."

- It's so easy.

- [Director] You reckon?

- Because you're living.

- I said, "Look David you can't catch the kids or otherwise, we've got no story."

He said, "All right.

Okay it's your film.

Yes boss."

I could see that he was frustrated.

I tried to demonstrate to him how they could avoid him, but he just wouldn't accept that.

She walks backwards.

- Backwards, that's easy.

- But once again, he agreed.

He acquiesced to my power.

And then as we were shooting a scene where he is looking down at the, what may be the children's tracks, I suddenly realized what David was trying to tell me.

If he can't catch them, then he doesn't want to catch them.

And I just said, on the spur of the moment, "Okay, David, you know they're there now."

And Chris Doyle, the cinematographer, brought the camera up about four seconds later, arrived at David's face, and he broke into this incredibly subtle one 30 second of a smile.

[soft eerie music] David was following his own script.

What was being communicated to the camera of his internal process was something that even I couldn't completely decipher until I cut the whole performance together, because he's so subtle.

He's so skilled as a film actor, it has to be magnified for you to see it and to understand it.

- Acting is, to me, is piece of cake, you know?

That is it.

That's it.

I live on it.

And because I can't do nothing else, first time I ever act the film called "Walkabout" in my life.

When I start to make the film and I start to broadcast throughout the world and Aboriginal star, you know, the young Aboriginal star was starring in "Walkabout" and then story went forever in newspaper.

And then the journalists came along like ants.

They came in and I just, I just, I just cried really hard to try to talk to them, but I couldn't speak English, you know what I mean?

And I cried.

I cried, you know, I cried for myself because I couldn't transfer my language to their language.

[upbeat music] - Young Aborigine actor, 17 years old, David Gulpilil accompanied by his friend [indistinct] arrives in London by Qantas on route to the Cannes film Festival, in which his film "Walkabout" is an official British entry.

- I landed in England and I walked through the Buckingham Palace in England with the Her Majesty Queen of England.

I walked in the red carpet, and so many people I met and I ended up with a John Lennon party.

[David singing in foreign language] That song about Mario Mandelpringo country and Mandelpringo land and Mandelpringo the language.

I am the Mandelpringo.

I'm the toa moeti.

My [indistinct] dream, and my sons and children too.

This is our songs.

Songs about our dream time, songs about where is promised land?

That is Mandelpringo.

[David singing in foreign language] First drop of water in this road, and the second will be next month.

It will be full.

All this it'll be green.

All this it'll be raining 24 hours for six months, and the swamp will cover by the water, and the land will change, the nature will grow.

Animals will grow.

Yeah.

So much.

It'll come to life again.

[David speaking foreign language] Robin is my traditional wife.

We were promised to each other by the tribal law.

We have many children together.

I born across the other side of the Gulpil River and they named me Gulpilil.

There's a waterfall there where a lot of the heaps of ducks and [] geese and everything.

I can sit down from the house, look down the valley and the middle there's a river, on the other side there's Gulpil.

And my name is Gulpilil.

So my name is Gulpil.

[soft music] My traditional country is over the other side of this river.

It's my father's country.

I can't get back there now.

The river is growing wider all the time.

I can't put the tree across the river now.

Of course, the tree's too short.

[soft music] I traveled with my father and my mother and my family.

And when I was young, it was different.

This land was empty, you know?

It was beautiful.

I could see my people never smoke cigarette, never smoke ganja, never smoke or never had a grog, there was nothing.

It's just fresh water and that's it.

And they could walk and live in this land.

And I was with them.

And then somebody came and spoiled.

[soft tense music] First time I saw white people, I didn't know where they were come from.

I thought they was a ghost.

All paint up in a white paint.

[soft music] I went to mission school as a child.

After my mother and father died, I winded up on my own.

I was a lost child.

[eerie music] Ramingining is about eight hours east of Darwin.

There are 16 language groups here.

We don't like fighting.

We don't like troublemaking.

So we made the law, and now it's a dry community.

- I remember in the olden days when David was a young boy, and I was so, but younger than David.

We used to take part in dancing on show days.

And there were [indistinct] who used to watch the dance, which one was the best dancing.

And then David was in our group, and the [indistinct] people went up and said, "Look, you're a good dancer.

We want you to be in a film."

[tense music] - Before they chose me, I showed them all different dance.

Mimi dance, heron, broga, kangaroo, imu.

My dancing skill got me the part.

And I was a bush boy, never speak English.

Nicolas Roeg, who directed the film "Walkabout".

He came up and he said to me, "What's your name?"

And I said, "Yes."

And he asked me for a name and I said yes.

And he said to me, "What's your name?"

And I looked at him and I said, "Yes."

[David laughing] "No, but what's your really name?"

And I said, "Yes" and then I walk away.

I thought I was going to be a cowboy in a movie like John Wayne.

What?

[David speaking foreign language] - I think it was the first time that I'd seen the aboriginal culture presented on screen as not only interesting, but dynamically attractive and sexy.

The guy was sexy.

No Australian director would've done that.

It would not have until then been culturally possible for us to think of an aboriginal young man as being, you know, sexually attractive to a western woman.

[cultural music] - [David] I was doing a special love dance, but the white girl didn't understand.

[cultural music continues] - He has this incredible process that looks at the camera and sort of what we call acting, but he wasn't acting.

He was not acting.

He was sharing a story.

- He wasn't sort of a superstar.

You call it like [] or Rambo or Sylvester Stallone.

No, it was just normal David Gulpilil.

So we were proud of him you know?

When he came back, we accepted him.

And because he took that culture and showed to the Western society how Yunga people used to live.

- It was an enormous boost to Aboriginal people all over Australia.

They were incredibly proud of him, they still are today.

You know, you go anywhere in Australia with him.

And black fellas love him, and they love him to death because, especially people in my generation, because he gave us the first really positive and strong image of an Aboriginal person on a big screen.

[upbeat music] - Let's talk about "Walkabout".

- Oh "Walkabout".

- You were wonderful.

It was beautiful and you moved so like a gazelle.

You're just a fantastic performance.

I have seen it before and I think it's wonderful.

- I thought my spirit would come back and I would come alive again for my work of art part two.

- Won't take it.

[child speaking indistinctly] - No, of course it's there.

Did you eat your breakfast properly?

- Yes.

- Nicolas Roeg brought the English aesthetic to the archetypal story about the Aborigines in the outback, the lost children's story, the Aboriginal tracker.

And the English aesthetic was quite shocking, really.

[tense music] It represents in that very classical way, the social Darwinist theory of the inevitable demise of the native races, which was the catch cry of the empire throughout the world.

- People here would like to know why at the end of "Walkabout" did you kill yourself?

- Oh yeah.

I wanna know too.

[audience laughing] I don't know.

I don't know why.

- Is there an aboriginal meaning behind that?

- No, no, no.

- No?

- Just, just- - It's part of the script, huh?

- Just a part of the script.

I mean, on that I didn't, I didn't speak the English in that time.

- There were virtually no Aboriginal people in film, you know, without playing Jackie jacket sort of role.

Or as Justine Saunders used to say, you know, if you're a black woman actress, you were invariably raped in every script.

- I've had my throat cut, I've been shot, thrown off a cliff, burnt to death.

- And if you're a black male actor, then more often than not, you were, you was the black tracker who said, "Yes boss he went that way boss."

and that was it.

[soft music] - [Jack] In 1967, there was a film made called "Journey Out of Darkness".

Now, the authenticity of the film was compromised by the fact that the Aboriginal tracker was played by Ed Devereux, who was a white Australian playing this role in Black face.

And the Aboriginal fugitive was played by Kamal, who is a perfectly decent singer, but I don't think has very much connection with the Aboriginal people.

- Here we're out to run country we'll have to take turns sleeping.

I'll take first watch.

- The fact that as late as 1967, a film could be made in which the key Aboriginal roles were played by a white actor and an Asian actor, still to me is extraordinary.

[soft music] - "Storm Boy" lived with the wind and pelican like Bush boy, and I educate him Yungoway.

What's your name?

Storm Boy.

You run like a black fella, like the wind.

I'm Fingerbone Bill.

You live here with your people?

- Just my dad, mom is dead.

[David singing foreign song] - [David] I did an owl dance, Judy Judo.

An owl spirit dance.

It's like inviting the white boy to the Aboriginal world.

[David singing foreign song] - That was the film that departed from every other Australian film in which something about aboriginal people had appeared, or in which Aboriginal people themselves had appeared.

In as much as the character that David played was absolutely adorable.

Thousands of people fell in love with him, mostly children.

And so David became the Aboriginal mascot for Australian school children.

- We can look like aboriginal?

Like aborigine?

Real bushman?

Yeah?

- David has always said that he's more of a dancer than an actor.

He combines the two, which is wonderful.

It's like painting a story.

I learned from Gabo, when you entertain, you educate.

And that's what it's about.

- 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

I traveled to many places.

Overseas, all over, teaching traditional dancing.

[dancers applauding] - David first rose to prominence as a dancer.

You know, there were people who called him the black Nureave and he was just magical to see and watch.

He used to be very much part of the political scene of the day.

A time of great social and political upheaval, not just in Australia, but in the world.

And a particularly dramatic time for the Aboriginal political struggle.

It was during the years from about 67 through to 74 that the greatest political gains that have ever been made by Aboriginal people occurred.

And David was very much in the thick of that in lots of ways, you know?

[upbeat music] It was that moment in time when Aboriginal people were going from being forced to feel ashamed of their blackness, to turning around and turning back against the racist and say, "Yeah, I'm black, I'm proud, proud of being black, stuff you."

[bright upbeat music] - I think it was his big curly hair and his beaming smile and the fact that he was black and beautiful.

I think that was the main thing that attracted me to him at first.

But never in my wildest dreams that I ever think that I would've connected to a tribal person.

And I just felt that Gulpil was like a spiritual soul.

That could be my connection to finding, you know, our culture for our people living in a city life.

[soft music] He liked meeting people and he liked interacting with people as an Aboriginal man, but at the end of the day, he would always go back to his homeland because that was his belonging.

[bright music] When we came back from places like Los Angeles, a lot of times he'd go back home with just a shirt or nothing on his back.

Just like he's stripping off as soon as he, you know, gets home there to Ramingining.

- [David] In the black fellow world, we share everything.

Everything is ours.

In the white fellow world, it is private property and everything belonged to someone else.

- Everybody have something that they can share with each other.

So you learn that if you could live, go away, then you come back, you learn very easily that the watch on your hand belongs to your uncle if he wants it, or your older brother.

There is hierarchy of rights too, and everything, all the money he makes would've belonged to everybody.

- Without insulting David or anybody.

I think David's ability to understand and manage money would be the same as our ability to understand and manage a ceremony.

[children chattering] - When I get paid from film, I share with my family.

That's what I do with money and different, if I would've stayed in Sydney or in Hollywood, it would've been different.

You know, I could be million dollar man or I could be $50,000 a day over work on a movie.

I don't know, maybe I'm worth that 2,500 a day.

I like acting with professional people like with Chamberlain or Mel Gibson or yeah I like Mel Gibson.

People that are rich, sort of sharp and quick, you know what I mean?

Not to just, no, no, no, not like that.

You know, what?

No, no, no, no.

Gotta be really quick, you know?

And you know, and got like that.

[upbeat music] I had done a lot of television, "Boney" series, "Homicide", "Matter of Place".

I did a lot.

[upbeat music] - No, don't aim it, no.

[man shouting indistinctly] He just stopped breathing I didn't mean to kill him.

David please, David.

[tense music] - David's raised in that traditional aboriginal knowledge system where he has that very fine, spooky ability to read the landscape.

Which is of course why filmmakers are so attracted to him.

They see the stereotypical Aborigine.

- Mick.

[tense music] - Ha Mick, you frighten shit outta me.

- So I automate.

Sneaking up on a man when he's rendering first aid to a lady.

- Ah, is that what you were doing?

- Oh, so that's a mate of mine.

Neville Bell, Sue Charton.

- Good day Sue.

- And what are you doing wandering around out here in the scrub Nev?

- I'm on my way to [indistinct].

Bloody drag, but still my dad get angry if I don't show up.

- See Nev's a real city boy, but his dad's a tribal elder.

- Oh no, you can't take my photograph.

- Oh I'm sorry.

You believe it'll take your spirit away?

- Nah, you got a lens cap on.

[Sue laughing] - [David] After "Crocodile Dundee", it just cut.

There was no filming, no script for me.

Not even a tour.

There was nothing.

I feel bad.

I thought I would be an international star by now, but big name now blanket.

The only time I saw white fella sharing like black fella, they left me out.

- It was noticeable that there were relatively few films.

I mean, hardly any films made on indigenous subjects.

There were one or two, and David was not visible.

And that was certainly a loss I think, for the Australian cinema at that time.

- I'm not a millionaire, I'm not rich.

It's nothing, look at this, Billy can.

I'm drinking cup of tea.

I got no luxury house behind me.

That's a mud [indistinct].

You wanna say how- You wanna know how many crocodile live in the water?

I'll swim around after because that's true.

Because that's true.

And "Crocodile Dundee" is bullshit.

You call that Crocodile Dundee?

No, no, no, this is Crocodile Dundee River here.

I'll swim cross and I'll eat him too.

[children chattering] [soft music] - [Michael] The Aborigines saw some bubbles and went in to catch what they said would be a goana.

I really wanted to go in to cool down, but I was afraid of the crocodiles.

There's a crocodile.

[men screaming] - Come on Michael, come on, come on.

[men speaking foreign language] - [Michael] With David's urging, I changed my mind.

I just kept saying to myself, they know what they're doing and David's mood really was infectious.

- What Mike Wilson didn't know was that there really was a crocodile in there, but we didn't tell him.

The more people in the water, the less chance that croc will get me first.

[David laughing] [David shouting in foreign language] [tense music] I've been waiting for the government to give me a house.

A lot of promises.

So I had to build my house myself.

Had to go down a rubbish dump to get the sink.

I found [indistinct] is stink eh.

When the first white man came, they offered this iron, box of tea leaf and all that.

And that reason why I probably haven't, probably haven't did too for a long time.

So I'm an independent and I always think of that.

I'd done a lot of work, lot of job for the people and people didn't turn back and pay me back, pay back.

I've done a lot for the people.

I've done a lot for Australia.

I've done a lot for the outside world.

Why?

Because I got a culture and language, one red blood.

Who am I?

God made me, left me in the earth.

Well, I am here to share with you my culture and language.

And this is where I live in a poor country.

[David speaking foreign language] We're gonna go to town.

We'll have our meeting there and see how we go.

- All right.

- I would just like to explain a little bit about what I know from David.

You know, like I've traveled with him around there for a while and it's a hard country and just the adversities they face.

He's out here and everyone thinks, you know, the aboriginals are all getting government funding and all the rest of it and they're not.

I couldn't keep up with the logistics of what he's gotta do every day, you know?

Water, you know, that's a major mission to go and get water.

- Get the bucket.

[David speaking foreign language] - Food.

It's a real problem.

You can't just run off to the store.

You know, if you gotta push start a Land Cruiser the first thing in the morning, it takes a lot outta you, you know?

And there's not much more you can do.

It's extremely hot, you know?

Food doesn't keep, nothing keeps, you know?

You can't carry a Kelvinator around with you.

So they need to be able to go out and hunt from areas.

There's so much land out there.

You know, it's from flood plains that are like the Serengeti in the summertime now to five foot of water swamp in the wet season.

[car engine rumbling] Nah.

[Trevor laughing] Push that.

[engine rumbling] 60 bucks worth of diesel to get out to catch two kangaroos and come back, you know?

And if you don't break an axle in your Land Cruiser, well you're lucky.

[soft tense music] - This was the most foreign country I'd ever been to.

And I've been to a lot of countries in the world, but here in our own backyard, I had the least amount of cultural things in common with that place.

And the least amount of information about it and the least amount of connections to it in any way.

It forces you to reassess how you think about these things and how you think about the person who comes from there and who lives there as a normal way of living.

[soft music] - After he had come along and he helped me with the script called "The Tracker".

He offered me, it's the first time that movie role and he said you will be starring, which I never ever done before.

- [Wayne] And action.

- We should stop and have a rest.

- Too many black fellas around here boss.

You better keep moving.

Trying to get energy back.

Make myself is not David Gulpilil.

Now for this second for a moment when the camera rolls, I'll be someone else.

- [Director] Action And cut.

- It is very hard learning lines.

I only speak English when I come to the city and I have to get up early five to six o'clock to get to the location every day.

I gotta look the same all the time in this movie with this tracker [indistinct].

So this is a woman, she make make up for me.

Everything gotta be perfect.

And I wear clothes every day, every morning.

I want your gun boss.

You better give it to him.

- And then he goes, "No, no, I'm not gonna give him my gun."

And then you grab him and talk good English.

- Listen carefully.

You will do what I tell you to do.

And you won't do that I don't tell you to do.

- You won't do anything.

- You won't do anything that I don't tell you to do.

That way you will survive.

Give the man your rifle.

- [Wayne] When we're together on a film set, his valet, I am his confidant.

- Anima and spear and central Australian spear.

- We work together traditionally as much as possible.

So David's culture is, it's all family orientated and it's family business and it's family culture.

You don't have anything to do with total strangers.

Whereas in our culture, you leave your family at home and everybody knows how to deal with strangers and get your job done.

So there's a big difference there.

It's really important to have a fire, somewhere where everybody can sit around and get the spirit of the fire.

We had a lot of extras come from Alice.

It was really important to get a fire happening for 'em.

And then they were all happy and they could relax and they feel comfortable.

- I went to Ramingining and stayed there for four days, not so long.

There were people there who were alive at, who are still alive today, who were there at a time when there were massacres happening, okay?

And they've survived those, but that's how real that is.

That connection is to David.

- Move.

Oh God, I'll whip you if you don't get moving.

[whip whipping] I said move!

- David has been absolutely critical to both representing Aboriginal people in modern Australia in the cinema, which is after all the biggest art form in the world, and also in his own ironic and charismatic way, undermining the stereotypes that were forced on him.

He's a tremendously important person to us culturally.

- You'll probably hang.

- Yes boss For black color, been born for that [indistinct].

- Too right.

[David and boss laughing] [David speaking foreign language] [children and David speaking foreign language] - I like going out to bush air up in the river.

I enjoy myself because this and town is too much pollution.

A little bit in town, different, but in here I can just hear the birds.

[birds chirping] [indistinct chattering] [children speaking foreign language] [indistinct] wild snake.

Wild snake, die from here in the swamp.

Swamp.

[David laughing] Big snake.

[children speaking foreign language] [car engine revving] [woman and David speaking foreign language] - First time I saw David on the screen and I said "Ah, so there's my cousin up on there on the screen now."

Well then, and I thought, what?

Well it made my spirit sort of rise and I thought, oh then maybe one day I will become a film star or a lawyer and have a good education.

Go to college and all that.

- During the rehearsal period for "Rabbit Proof Fence", when we were trying to prepare our three untried actors to be movie stars, I was having real trouble with the oldest girl, The 12-year-old Evelyn Sampi from Broome.

I think that she was just afraid, filled with fear of failure.

So when David arrived in Adelaide, I took him aside and said, "David, I need your help.

I need you somehow to connect with this young girl.

I need you to fill her with confidence."

[crew laughing] - Good one.

Now I came all the way down to [indistinct] here for your 1, 2, 3, and little one.

So we gotta do this.

This is our films, you know, not his films.

I know he's directing it, but we're gonna be playing in this movie.

We're gonna be playing, eh?

You wanna play it in the movie?

Yes, what this is, it's your turn now and you gotta pass on that.

[soft music] [gun shooting] [soft music] - People will ring up and want to know if David can come for a casting.

And I say, well, if you wanted him for a casting, yes, but we're probably talking about a two day trip at least.

[soft music] We had one of these jobs for a television commercial that required traveling overseas and it seemed simple, you know?

Bring him down to Sydney and I was gonna accompany him on the plane to Spain.

Well, it wasn't quite that simple.

His passport was at home.

That meant flying from Alice Springs to Darwin, overnighting in Darwin, getting a light plane out to Ramingining.

From there he had to get a vehicle drive across the area for swampland to the river.

The river's crocodile infested, no boat.

David swam across the river, walked in several kilometers to his house, got his passport, came back, swam back across the river with his passport in his mouth, got in the car, drove back to Ramingining, light plane to Darwin.

Flight from Darwin to Sydney where he met me.

All smiles.

Ready to go.

I'm ready.

That was quite something to go through for a quick overseas trip.

- Letter from John Kani.

Read this one for me.

Trevor.

Trevor, can you read this letter for me please?

I don't know what does it say?

White man's language.

- Your yearly membership to artist technology is up for renewal.

Artist Technologies recently implemented an online payment facility which allows members to pay their annual membership.

They just want you to pay the fee.

- [David] What mate?

- Artist fee.

- Artist fee.

- Yeah, we'll have a look.

We've got $5.50 GST anyway, we've gotta give that to the government.

$60.

So $65.50 plus postage in handling there.

Got you for.

- Yeah.

- Yo that, so you can be an actor.

- I'm an actor, alright.

- Better off real life out there, eh?

- Yeah, I don't want that.

I'll burn that letter.

- We thought they were Bills, didn't we?

[David speaking foreign language] - Ramingining was a great place to live.

We lived a pretty traditional life.

I'm blown away at times by how generous people were to some strange white woman that come in from outside and sort of landed in their midst.

Why would they bother with me?

You know, that sort of thing.

But I was just taken into the family very quickly and very slow process of learning how things are done and why things are done.

They didn't have any great expectations of me.

We had some really good trips into town.

David used to go in every year for the Queen's birthday celebrations as a great respect for the Queen and he'd get an invitation every year.

He's got an Order of Australia.

So we would dress up, tuxedo medals off to the Queen's birthday afternoon luncheon at Government House.

Yeah, that was fun.

- Bushman hey?

Dressing up in the suit.

Wow.

I like it.

- For the premier we'll put this one on and then when you finish the premier, then you can put this one on for the- - What about the Hilton?

- For the Hilton.

This is for the Hilton - [indistinct] order of Australia medal.

[David speaking foreign language] Perfect.

I feel good.

- [Wayne] Look at that Aboriginal flag.

- [indistinct] where?

Where?

Where?

- [Wayne] Look at that.

- Oh yes, yes.

I'm happy.

See, I'm happy.

I'm not even nervous.

- [Wayne] That's right.

- Far up, opposite of Hilton hey?

- [Wayne] Yeah.

- Alright.

[crowd cheering] [upbeat music] [audience applauding] [gun shooting] - [Airlie] Yeah.

- Yeah.

[children cheering] [David and kids speaking in foreign language] - [Trevor] Nice shooting brother.

- Well- - Got that with a spear, didn't you?

- Yes, yes, yes.

- Yeah, there.

- Yes we did.

- hey look at that.

Hey, nice shooting.

- We're good with a spear.

[David speaking foreign language] You know, the first time I ever smoked with Bob Marley in the Diamond Head, Waikiki, USA, Hawaii.

I'm smoking marijuana just like everyone else is smoking in the world.

I drink beer just like everyone else drink beer and I drink whiskey.

I buy a cigarette.

Biscuit caviar.

No worries, I done all that.

You bought it into our world When [indistinct] in the our world.

So we still using it.

Even I'm wearing a clothes.

But before [indistinct] came to this country, it was nothing like this.

It was nothing like this.

[David groaning] - You bastard.

- He's with me.

Don't you ever hurt him.

He's with me.

Well, be nice drinking with you.

[men laughing] - We knew considered that he was only a very young youth in "Walkabout" and "Storm Boy".

The culture of the film industry in the 70s certainly revolved around alcohol.

And David's significant mentors were John Milliam and Dennis Hopper.

[man grunting] - [David] Dennis Hopper really was mad and wild, like "Mad Dog Morgan".

We had some pretty crazy time together.

- Recently when he spent time in Burima at the court hearing, they said, "Were you drunk?"

There's something like this.

"Were you drunk?"

And David replied to the magistrate, "No your honor, I only had six cans."

As far as he was concerned and a lot of his peers, you're not drunk unless you've had a slab or something.

- I like living in a both world.

I like being in my home, but this two life is also spoiled me.

Another hand that I can live is free in my world and the other hand in the western world that I have to pay the rent.

That's why I like to go out to bush and disappear.

White man's world and the Black fellas world, Well, other side of the world, you've gotta have all the white fella things, you know?

And in the black fella of world, you'll have nothing.

It's just a spear and [].

Finish, you get up and go.

Hey, finish white fellas, ah, too much junk.

But that's all right.

I like it.

I got a two truck there running around the countryside.

[indistinct foreign language chattering] When I'm at home, I have many responsibilities.

Today we are traveling to Maningrida for a young boy circumcision ceremony.

[indistinct foreign language chattering] - [indistinct] camera or video camera?

- Video camera.

[David speaking foreign language] [upbeat music] [man speaking foreign language] [soft music] We have been given special permission to film the Marndayala ceremony.

It has been passed down from generation for thousands of years.

No outsiders have ever seen it before.

[woman screaming] [woman screaming] [indistinct chattering] The ceremony goes all night until early morning and the young boy will be circumcised before sunrise.

[indistinct] is honor of the Marndayala ceremony, the one walking in the middle.

[indistinct chattering] [crowd singing foreign ceremony song] I went through this ceremony when I was a boy.

Now I will lead the initiation man to welcome the boy to manhood.

[crowd singing foreign ceremony song] [crowd chanting] [indistinct foreign language chattering] [crowd chanting] [crowd chanting] We are the brother and sisters of the world.

Doesn't matter if you're bird, snake, fish or kangaroo.

One red black.

[woman speaking foreign language] - [Speaker 2] Is everybody happy?

- [David] Yeah, everyone happy.

- [Speaker 3] Hey relax.

- [David] The family and the children.

And I say, wow, you know?

- [Speaker 3] Ready?

- [David] They're proud of it and they believe me too.

Yeah.

[indistinct foreign language chattering] [soft foreign music begins] [soft foreign music continues] [soft foreign music continues] [indistinct foreign language chattering] [kids laughing]