This clip shows Rupert Max Stuart, an Arrernte Mat-utjarra Elder, speaking beside a campfire about the importance of his culture. He emphasises the significance of his father’s country, Ananta, also known as Lila Creek, while reminding the young men about the importance of their own culture. He stresses that they should continue to speak their Indigenous languages and highlights the connection between language and culture. The clip has English subtitles and is accompanied by a soundtrack of gentle acoustic guitar music.

Educational value points

• The clip shows Rupert Max Stuart’s storytelling as both a traditional way of passing on information and a method of keeping his culture alive. His sharing of his knowledge with the younger generation around the campfire is an example to them of the importance of the oral tradition. He speaks eloquently of the role of such an oral tradition, saying ‘everyone can listen to our culture with their ears and hearts’. He stresses the continuity of his culture and the importance of people getting together to share their Dreaming.
• Stuart talks of coming home to his father’s country, suggesting the rich meanings of the word ‘country’ in Indigenous Australian cultures. Country refers to home, a clan or tribal area, the places created by ancestral beings and where previous generations have lived. It is known intimately through oral traditions and experience and includes all the old camp sites, available foods and medicines across the seasons and the ceremonies necessary to the country’s wellbeing.
• This clip shows Stuart sharing his extensive cultural knowledge as well as his concerns about his culture with the young men of his community. His tone is almost admonishing and they are listening and showing respect to an Elder. He asserts the continuity of his culture but is also concerned about what is being lost. Stuart reflects on the past when he talks about how food was gathered traditionally (with spears and boomerangs, not rifles) and natural food sources were eaten (not ‘whiteman’s food’).
• This clip shows Stuart fulfilling his duty as an Elder of his people by passing on knowledge of his culture to the next generation of men. Senior men and women in Indigenous Australian communities have extensive knowledge of their country and are the custodians of traditional law. Their overriding duty is to honour and maintain that law and pass it on to the next generation.
• Stuart emphasises the advantage of speaking both English and Indigenous languages so people are able to participate in both cultures. As he uses a mixture of both languages he stresses the differences between non-Indigenous and Indigenous cultures, referring to English as part of ‘the whiteman’s world’.
• Stuart (1932–) is an Arrernte Mat-utjarra Elder who served on the Central Land Council from 1985, and as chairperson from 1998 to 2001. His early life was quite different. He was convicted of murder in 1959, spent 35 years in prison and was released in 1984. His murder conviction was contentious because many believe he was incapable of dictating the confession that was the basis of the police case. Following his release he became a respected Elder and Indigenous representative.
• This clip from the documentary Sunset to Sunrise exemplifies the work of the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), which aims to promote pride in Indigenous Australians by creating training and employment opportunities, and informing and educating the wider community about the richness and diversity of Indigenous cultures. CAAMA broadcasts in all the major local Indigenous languages around Alice Springs and plays an important role in language maintenance.

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