Background - Metro Magazine

Ten Canoes Press KitMany CanoesFrom almost the beginning, there were too many things that too many people wanted for them allto fit in just one feature film. Additional, associated projects arose almost at random. Some havebeen completed, some are works in progress, other await finance while a few of them languish,perhaps to be re-activated once more time and resources can be found.First there was Eleven Canoes, which was a project to teach the young people of Ramingininghow to use video recording and editing equipment so they could make their own minidocumentaries.This was highly successful, with almost twenty shorts and a renewed andimproved media course at Ramingining School coming out of it.Sylvester Durrurmga, Marcus Dhamarranydji and Valerie Malibirr learningcamera skills during the Eleven Canoes project.Then Twelve Canoes came intobeing. This is a website project, notabout the film, but about theenvironment, culture and people ofRamingining...the people there havemuch they wish to communicate tothe outside world; not only is a filminsufficient, but a website can domuch more, and transmit it instantlyto the entire world.Thirteen Canoes soon followed...amulti-media art/cultural exhibition,using the artefacts made for TenCanoes, the artworks commissionedfor Twelve Canoes, some Thomson photographs, perhaps videos from Eleven Canoes. AndFourteen Canoes was a logical extension...a book with the original Thomson photographs, thecolour equivalents from the Ten Canoes shoot, photos of the Yolngu participants in a moderncontext, words to demystify the people in the photos.Fifteen Canoes, a musicpreservation project; SixteenCanoes, a project to restore thefunctioning of the closed-circuittelevision set-up at Ramingining;Seventeen Canoes, a videomakingyoung people's exchangeproject with other remotecommunities; Eighteen Canoes, aone-hour television documentaryabout the effect of Ten Canoes onthe community.It is clear that the Many Canoeswill resonate in Ramingining for along time to come.Steven Wilinydjanu interviewing Michael Dawu for the Eighteen Canoes project.19