
Ian Dunlop
2021Desert People
Ian Dunlop
Ian Dunlop
Two Aboriginal families live like their ancestors have for centuries in this anthropological documentary. The gathering of food is the main focus as women harvest grass seeds to make a primitive flour for bread. Grubs, lizards, and fruit are also on the menu, with the only contact with the modern world being their trek to a government compound for much-needed drinking water.
Desert People
Baruya Muka Archival
Ian Dunlop
Maurice Godelier, Richard Lloyd
A detailed record of the first stage male initiation ceremony of the Baruya of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. A group of nine to 12 year old boys are followed through their first initiation - from the last days with their families through their nose-piercing and other rituals and ordeals to the final feast given in their honour. It is a tough time, the beginning of a ten-year journey to warrior and manhood.
Baruya Muka Archival
Dances at Aurukun
Ian Dunlop
This film is a record of traditional Aboriginal dancing at Aurukun Mission on Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland. Filmed in 1962 for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, it showcases and preserves Wik ritual dances and ceremonies at a time when customary Aboriginal life was changing and adapting to Western culture.
Dances at Aurukun