A Trailblazing Aboriginal Actor

GETTY IMAGES...David Gulpilil's film career spanned 50 years


One of Australia's greatest actors, David Gulpilil (Kingfisher) Ridjimiraril Dalaithngu, died last week aged 68, following a battle with lung cancer. In accordance with custom he will be returned to the place of his birth, known to Aboriginal people as his Country, for ceremony.


The actor, dancer, storyteller, and cultural crusader was celebrated across the globe for his contribution to cinema and his role in improving representation of Indigenous peoples and culture.


A proud Yolŋu (Aboriginal group) man anchored in kinship, sharing and responsibility, he described his experience living in the two worlds of Yolŋu culture and the Western world of fame as: "Left side, my Country. Right side, white man's world. This one tiptoe in caviar and champagne, this one in the dirt of my Dreamtime."


Warning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: this article contains images of someone who has died. His family has given permission to use his name and image.


Born on his homeland of Marwuyu in Arnhem Land, the Northern Territory of the continent known as Australia, Gulpilil was from the Mandhalpuyngu clan. His name - his totem - Gulpilil represents the kingfisher.


Raised on Country following the Yolŋu knowledge system of connection and balance with the universe, he was a skilled hunter, tracker, musician, painter, ceremonial dancer and trustee of cultural structures and laws.


After the death of his mother and father he went to the Maningrida mission school. It was here that his phenomenal talent for ceremonial dancing was spotted by English film director Nicolas Roeg, who cast the teenager as a lead character in Walkabout (1971), a story acknowledging the role of Aboriginal man as the saviour of two white children stranded on foreign, black country.


Gulpilil's compelling performance was the first time in Australian film that an Aboriginal character was depicted as charismatic, powerful, and intrinsically sexy. He was miscredited in the credits as Gampilil.


The film flopped at the Australian box office but the elegance and raw masculinity of Gulpilil's performance made international headlines, and the film is now credited as 'one of the greats'.  READ MORE...