Sunset to Sunrise (ingwartentyele – arrerlkeme): My father's country

Title:

Sunset to Sunrise (ingwartentyele – arrerlkeme): My father's country

Year

2006

Warnings

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons

Summary

Arrernte Mat-utjarra Elder Rupert Max Stuart’s voice runs over the image of the unfolding night in a riverbed outside of Alice Springs. Max tells us he’s come home. He’s 77 years old and has returned to his father’s country. It’s a place called Lila Creek in whitefellas’ language, but in Max’s language it is called Ananta. Max talks about the significance of Indigenous culture and the Dreaming, and how each area has its own Dreaming. It is important to be able to speak Indigenous language as well as English.

Summary by Romaine Moreton

CURATOR'S NOTES

Arrernte Mat-utjarra Elder Rupert Max Stuart shares the wisdom of his experience, and speaks of the necessity of being able to speak Indigenous language as well as Western language. But he says, unequivocally that Indigenous culture, religion and land has not disappeared – it is still here. Max Stuart is a voice that needs to be heard by Indigenous people and non-Indigenous peoples alike, for there are few Indigenous people who are able to communicate or translate Indigenous religion in relation to the land in a way that it is understood, and the centrality of land to Indigenous beliefs is one that is fundamentally expressed through continuing culture and language.

Sunset to Sunrise Synopsis

A documentary that carries the words of Rupert Max Stuart, Arrernte Mat-utjarra Elder, his philosophies and message about passing culture on and keeping it alive.

Sunset to Sunrise is part of the Nganampa Anwernekenhe series produced by Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) Productions. Nganampa Anwernekenhe means 'ours’ in the Pitjantjatjara and Arrernte lanuages, and the series aims to contribute to the preservation of Indigenous languages and cultures.

Curator's Notes

Sunset to Sunrise is a yarn, a tale told by Rupert Max Stuart, an Arrernte and Mu-tujulu Elder. A gentle, moving film where we as the audience are asked, at the film’s urging, to listen to this Elder, his words of wisdom, of the experience of his childhood and into his older years. Stuart speaks directly to his people, and chastises them for the irresponsible nature of their lives, whereby the importance of culture is forsaken for white man’s poison, or alcohol.

Notes by Romaine Moreton