Crookhat and the Kulunada

Streaming video - 2014

David Tranter continues his series of outstanding films which document the Dreaming stories and history of his Alyawarr heritage. As in Tranters other films - Boomerang Today, Crookhat and Camphoo, Karlu Karlu and Willaberta Jack - the stories are told by Elders in the community. In this case three old men, Donald (Crookhat) Akemarr Thompson, Alec Apetyarr Peterson and Casey Akemarr Holmes travel by four-wheel drive out to a surprising strip of green bush in the desert, where a permanent spring feeds a large waterhole. We listen to their stories as they prepare their camp: stories rich in knowledge of the place and its history. They tell both the Dreamtime stories of the Rainbow Serpent, Kulunada, which lived in the waterhole, and also t...he violent past of the white settlement of the area. The ruins of a white homestead beside the waterhole evoke stories of the white mans clash with the Kulunada, and also the shooting of an Aboriginal stockman by the station manager. As Crookhat tells the stories, he is corrected and prompted by the others. As Tranter explains, “the reason we have a narrator and a witness to tell the story is so the story is told the right way.” For Tranter, the quiet, reflective style of his films is “to be simple and straight in the same way that our old people tell their stories. You cant bend the story or change it to try and make it fit a format. It has to be told straight.” Through his films he can “show the way our old people pass on our stories. I believe its important to add them to our archive”. “Nobody is more adept than David Tranter at coaxing the real depth of these stories from his subjects. The observational approach highlights the absolute comfort of these old men in their own country.” - Ray Lillis, Executive producer. more