, July 1972
Film and television In 1969, Gulpilil's skill
as a tribal dancer caught the attention of British filmmaker
Nicolas Roeg, who had come to
Maningrida scouting locations for a forthcoming film. Roeg promptly cast the 16-year-old unknown to play a principal role in his film
Walkabout, released in 1971. It was internationally acclaimed, and Gulpilil's role was the first time that an Aboriginal character had been portrayed as sexually attractive. He taught Bob Marley how to play the
didgeridoo, while Marley introduced him to "
ganja". A documentary about his life,
Gulpilil: One Red Blood, was aired on
ABC Television in 2003. The title comes from a quote by Gulpilil: "We are all one blood. No matter where we are from, we are all one blood, the same". Gulpilil was a major creative influence throughout his life in both dance and film. He initiated and narrated the film
Ten Canoes, which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2006
Cannes Festival. The low-budget film, based on a 1,000-year-old traditional story of misplaced love and revenge, features non-professional Aboriginal actors speaking their local language. Gulpilil collaborated with the director,
Rolf de Heer, urging him to make the film. He ultimately withdrew from a central role in the project for "complex reasons." Gulpilil also provided the voice of the storyteller for the film. De Heer had directed Gulpilil in the earlier film,
The Tracker (2002). In 2007, he starred in
Richard Friar's hour-long independent documentary,
Think About It! This was focused on Indigenous rights and the
anti-war movement. It included commentary from former Prime Minister
Malcolm Fraser, former
Greens leader
Bob Brown, and
David Hicks, then a detainee at the United States'
Guantanamo Bay detention camp on Cuba. In 2014, Gulpilil again collaborated with De Heer, this time sharing on screenwriting credits for ''
Charlie's Country''. The film won several awards, including Best Actor in
Un Certain Regard at the
Cannes Film Festival. Gulpilil was renowned for portraying Aboriginal culture before it became threatened by the white civilisations. He became somewhat divorced from his own culture by his career in film. He felt that he was stretched somewhere between the two, with "one tiptoe in caviar and champagne, this one in the dirt of my Dreamtime." This work, co-written with
Reg Cribb, and directed by
Neil Armfield, was based on stories of his life assembled into a script. These included tales from the making of
Walkabout, performing at
Buckingham Palace, and inadvertently causing a bomb scare at
Cannes. He also performed on stage in
The Cradle of Hercules at the
Sydney Opera House in 1974; the Commonwealth Gala Performance in Brisbane in 1982 (in front of
Queen Elizabeth II and the
Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip;) and the
Message Sticks Film Festival in Sydney in 2002. In November 1997, Gulipilil's
dance troupe performed at the second National Aboriginal Dance Conference in
Adelaide (hosted by the
National Aboriginal Dance Council Australia (NADCA).) The conference included discussions of
cultural and intellectual property rights and
copyright issues for Australian Indigenous dancers. A free concert was given in
Rymill Park / Murlawirrapurka. The troupe was given a grant from the
Northern Territory Government to attend the third conference
Writing and painting In addition to his career in dance, music, film and television, Gulpilil was an acclaimed storyteller. He wrote the text for two volumes of children's stories based on Yolngu beliefs. These books also feature photographs and drawings by Australian artists, and convey Gulpilil's reverence for the landscape, people and traditional culture of his homeland.
King brown snake with blue tongue lizard at Gulparil waterhole, painted by Gulpilil in 2013–14, is in the
Art Gallery of South Australia's collection. ==Recognition and awards==