EBOOK
About
'David is a gateway to a history that we've so far denied and not embraced. In this country, he's more important than Ned Kelly.' Jack Thompson
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that content inside this publication, contains images and the name of a person who has died. For cultural reasons, he is referred to as David Dalaithngu.
It's been almost fifty years since a teenage David Dalaithngu illuminated screens worldwide with his breakout role in Walkabout. It was one of the first times we'd seen an Aboriginal person cast in a significant role and only four years after Holt's referendum to alter the constitution and give Indigenous people citizenship and, subsequently, the right to vote.
Dalaithngu quickly became the face of the Indigenous world to white Australian audiences. Charisma. Good looks. A competent, strong, mysterious man starring in films ranging from Crocodile Dundee to Rabbit-Proof Fence.
But what marked Dalaithngu, despite his fame and popularity, was the feeling that he was forever stuck between two worlds: a Yolngu man, a hunter, a tracker, who grew up in the bush in Arnhem Land outside any white influence; and a movie star flitting from movie sets to festivals.
Able to exist in both worlds, but never truly home.
From the author of the bestselling Wednesdays with Bob, Derek Rielly builds a narrative around his attempt to encapsulate the most beguiling and unconventional of Australian entertainers, observing Dalaithngu's own attempt to find a place in the world. With interviews from notable icons and friends - such as Jack Thompson, Paul Hogan, Phillip Noyce, Craig Ruddy, George Gittoes, Gary Sweet and Damon Gameau - this book unriddles a famous enigma at last.
'He has an extraordinary presence, what ever that word means. It's very real. Some people have it and some people don't. And David has it - he knows how to feed the camera.' Jack Thompson
David Dalaithngu was a Yolngu man beloved worldwide as a dancer, actor and artist. His preternatural acting in the films Walkabout, Storm Boy, Crocodile Dundee, The Tracker and Charlie's Country - for which he won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes Film Festival and Best Actor at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in 2014 - allowed Dalaithngu to transmit the worlds of the First Australians to screens with unrivalled magic and melancholy, and made him an icon of cinema. Dalaithngu's passing in November 2021 prompted an outpouring of love and regard from across the globe. During his career he was known by a different surname but for cultural reasons he is now to be referred to as David Dalaithngu.
Derek Rielly is a journalist born in Perth and based in Bondi, Sydney. He is the son of a pro-wrestler father and a diplomat mother, and the creator of the four-language, pan-European magazine Surf Europe, the co-founder of Stab magazine and BeachGrit.com. His writing has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian. Derek is the bestselling author of Wednesdays with Bob (with Bob Hawke). This is Derek's second book.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images of a person who has died.
The late actor's family has granted permission to use his image. For cultural reasons he is referred to as David Dalaithngu.
From the bestselling author of Wednesdays with Bob comes an intimate portrait of Indigenous actor David Gulpilil.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that content inside this publication, contains images and the name of a person who has died. For cultural reasons, he is referred to as David Dalaithngu.
It's been almost fifty years since a teenage David Dalaithngu illuminated screens worldwide with his breakout role in Walkabout. It was one of the first times we'd seen an Aboriginal person cast in a significant role and only four years after Holt's referendum to alter the constitution and give Indigenous people citizenship and, subsequently, the right to vote.
Dalaithngu quickly became the face of the Indigenous world to white Australian audiences. Charisma. Good looks. A competent, strong, mysterious man starring in films ranging from Crocodile Dundee to Rabbit-Proof Fence.
But what marked Dalaithngu, despite his fame and popularity, was the feeling that he was forever stuck between two worlds: a Yolngu man, a hunter, a tracker, who grew up in the bush in Arnhem Land outside any white influence; and a movie star flitting from movie sets to festivals.
Able to exist in both worlds, but never truly home.
From the author of the bestselling Wednesdays with Bob, Derek Rielly builds a narrative around his attempt to encapsulate the most beguiling and unconventional of Australian entertainers, observing Dalaithngu's own attempt to find a place in the world. With interviews from notable icons and friends - such as Jack Thompson, Paul Hogan, Phillip Noyce, Craig Ruddy, George Gittoes, Gary Sweet and Damon Gameau - this book unriddles a famous enigma at last.
'He has an extraordinary presence, what ever that word means. It's very real. Some people have it and some people don't. And David has it - he knows how to feed the camera.' Jack Thompson
David Dalaithngu was a Yolngu man beloved worldwide as a dancer, actor and artist. His preternatural acting in the films Walkabout, Storm Boy, Crocodile Dundee, The Tracker and Charlie's Country - for which he won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes Film Festival and Best Actor at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in 2014 - allowed Dalaithngu to transmit the worlds of the First Australians to screens with unrivalled magic and melancholy, and made him an icon of cinema. Dalaithngu's passing in November 2021 prompted an outpouring of love and regard from across the globe. During his career he was known by a different surname but for cultural reasons he is now to be referred to as David Dalaithngu.
Derek Rielly is a journalist born in Perth and based in Bondi, Sydney. He is the son of a pro-wrestler father and a diplomat mother, and the creator of the four-language, pan-European magazine Surf Europe, the co-founder of Stab magazine and BeachGrit.com. His writing has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian. Derek is the bestselling author of Wednesdays with Bob (with Bob Hawke). This is Derek's second book.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains images of a person who has died.
The late actor's family has granted permission to use his image. For cultural reasons he is referred to as David Dalaithngu.
From the bestselling author of Wednesdays with Bob comes an intimate portrait of Indigenous actor David Gulpilil.