This is an excerpt from colour home movies made between 1944 and 1948 by Reverend James McCarthy, the Superintendent of the Presbyterian Mission on Mornington Island.
Benny Tjapaltarri and Mick Ngamurarri tell us the significance of the Dreaming, and how the Dreaming ancestors created the landscape. Summary by Romaine Moreton.
Aerial shots of Hermannsburg in Central Australia are followed by black-and-white historical footage of Indigenous people going about their business on the mission. Interview footage of Pastor F.
After black-and-white footage of Pintubi people, Smithy Zimeran Tjampitjinpa recalls being moved to Papunya. Yuyua Nampitjinpa talks about her experience in the mission school.
Rain falls heavily, the streets of the community are quiet, and Moses sits drinking tea on the porch of a house in the community of Numbulwar, Wandu, where he is from, has been flooded in.
Tom E Lewis introduces the concept of five seasons over footage of an overflowing Rose River – the land inundated with water, followed by a montage of a dry riverbed.
Tom E Lewis gives a brief introduction into how Arnhemland society is structured. There are 12 clans in Numbulwar, and the society is divided into two moieties.