Saturday, February 05, 2011

More canoes

The "Ten Canoes" project has had many wonderful offshoots. One is the website "Twelve Canoes," which features films made by students in Ramingining. Traditions, stories, ceremonies, history, etc. are the subjects. What is especially nice is the way they show the interconnection of different arts. Each segment is framed by - and in a sense narrates - a bark painting, the starting "text," if you will. (The painting at right introduces the section on ceremonies.) Each also leads to shorter videos of a Dreaming site connected to the story or its teller, or to a performance of a song. The living of Yolngu tradition through these interconnected art forms (and landscape) is barely hinted at in "Ten Canoes," so this makes a lovely complement to it.