Journey Home, David Gulpilil - Special Film Screening

David Gulpilil (1953-2021) was one of Australia’s finest Indigenous actors. He catapulted to fame in his debut feature Nicholas Roeg’s ‘Walkabout’ (1971) had an outstanding career, and is widely regarded as an icon by Australia’s First Nations creative communities.

David Gulpilil was a tribal Yolngu man born at a place called Gupulul, in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. David’s cultural beliefs taught him that he and that country were one and the same. He had an embodied relationship with that land. Due to ill health David lived his final years in Murray Bridge, South Australia as far away from his Homeland of Gupulul as you can imagine.

This documentary, narrated by Hugh Jackman, is the story of David Gulpilil’s family fulfilling a promise they made to him before he passed-away, to lay him to rest at the place of his birth, at Gupulul in Arnhem Land. In honour of David’s filmmaking legacy and his desire to invite the whole world to his funeral, or Bapurru, in Yolngu language, ̈ his families granted the filmmakers rare access to Aboriginal land and cultural ceremonies ordinarily kept from public view. Exclusive insight into one of the oldest surviving cultures on the planet.

His families, the Yolngu tribes, accompanied David Gulpilil along every step of this extraordinary mission, an expanse of over four thousand kilometres by vehicles, planes, boats, on foot, and by helicopter. As we witness the physical challenges, we come to understand how and why cultural leaders also guided David’s spirit back to a place known as Marawuyu, a sacred waterhole from where many Yolngu souls emerge, and to where they must return to complete their life-death-life cycle. Then at the conclusion this remarkable homecoming, in one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of Australia, we’re privy to David’s families closing out his life’s story by re-enacting the Songlines given by their ancestors, reaffirming his, and their ongoing connection to culture and country.

Screen Australia & National Indigenous Television present
in association with Screen Territory, VicScreen & Madman Entertainment
a Savage Films & Brindle Films production ‘Journey Home, David Gulpilil’ 
narrator Hugh Jackman storyteller Danzal Baker AKA Baker Boy
director of photography Allan Collins ASC cinematographer Anna Cadden edited by Bill Murphy ASE
graphics Kingdom of Ludd location sound Josh Williams mix David Williams original music David Bridie
associate producers Cathy Gallagher, Bridget May executive producers Joyce Malakuya Malibirr
Peter Murrkiltja Guyula, Alfred Yangipuy Wanambi, Witiyana Marika, Paul Wiegard
produced by Rachel Clements, Jida Gulpilil, Lloyd Garrawurra, Trisha Morton-Thomas, Maggie Miles
written & directed by Maggie Miles & Trisha Morton-Thomas
© 2025 Savage Films & Brindle Films

Presented by Whitehorse City Council