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Famed Aboriginal Australian actor David Gulpilil dies at 68

The actor found fame in the 1986 hit film Crocodile Dundee but struggled with straddling two very different cultures.

AUSTRALIA’S MOST ACCLAIMED Indigenous actor, David Gulpilil, has died of lung cancer, a government leader said. He was 68 years old.

Gulpilil found his widest audiences with his roles in the 1986 hit film Crocodile Dundee and in director Baz Luhrmann’s 2008 epic Australia, in a career that spanned five decades. He was often described as a bridge between Indigenous Australia and the outside world who never fit comfortably in either place.

“It is with deep sadness that I share with the people of South Australia the passing of an iconic, once-in-a-generation artist who shaped the history of Australian film and Aboriginal representation on screen,” South Australia state premier Steven Marshall said.

An accomplished didgeridoo player, Gulpilil mixed with Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley. He was feted in New York and Paris. He also spent periods of his life as an itinerant, drinking and sleeping in parks in the northern city of Darwin, and stints in prison for alcohol-fuelled offences.

Gulpilil was born on tribal land in the sparsely populated wilds of the Australian northern frontier in the early 1950s, his friend and caregiver Mary Hood said. His date of birth was recorded as July 1, 1953, a guesswork date set by local missionaries.

hugh-jackman-nicole-kidman-brandon-walters-and-david-gulpililpress-conference-held-on-the-sydney-harbour-foreshores-prior-to-the-world-premiere-of-australiasydney-australia-181108 Gulpilil pictured in 2008 alongside co-stars Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, and Brandon Walters during the press tour for 'Australia' Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

crocodile-dundee-1986-real-peter-faiman-david-gulpilil-collection-christophel-rimfire-films Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Gulpilil said he never saw a European Australian until he was eight years old and considered English his sixth language, his biographer Derek Rielly wrote. Gulpilil’s Christian name was foisted upon him at school.

Gulpilil was a 16-year-old ceremonial dancer performing in the Indigenous mission of Maningrida in 1969 when he met the British director Nicolas Roeg, who was scouting for filming locations. Gulpilil starred in Roeg’s acclaimed 1971 film Walkabout as a lone youth who comes across and rescues two lost British children. The British siblings were played by a teenage Jenny Agutter and the director’s seven-year-old son, Lucien.

Roles followed in Storm Boy in 1976 and The Last Wave in 1977.

His final role was the remake of Storm Boy in 2019, in which he played the father of the central character in the original, Fingerbone Bill.

Gulpilil recalled learning to binge on alcohol and drugs from counter-culture icon Dennis Hopper, who played the starring role in the 1976 film about a 19th-century Australian outlaw, Mad Dog Morgan.

Gulpilil won multiple best-actor awards for the 2002 Rolf de Herr-directed film The Tracker, in which he played one of the many Indigenous men Australian police routinely used as trackers of fugitives in the Outback.

Weeks before the film was released, journalists visited him in the small Indigenous community of Ramingining on his crocodile-infested tribal land. He was living in a hut with his then-partner, Indigenous painter Robyn Djunginy, without power or running water.

“I was brought up in a tin shed. I wandered all over the world — Paris, New York — now I’m back in a tin shed,” Gulpilil said.

He presented himself as a victim of his own celebrity and his own people’s misunderstanding of his position in the wider world.

“People say to me: You’re a big name. You have money. Why don’t you buy yourself a house; get out of Ramingining?” he said.

“This is my country. I belong here, and I’m broke,” he added.

Exactly why he was broke was not clear. He was vague about how much he earned over the years, and wealth in Australian Indigenous society is communal, tending to permeate through relatives and friends.

Gulpilil’s friend and caregiver, Mary Hood, first met him in 2006 at the Darwin premiere of Ten Canoes, the first feature-length film in an Australian Indigenous language.

Gulpilil narrated the film and his son, Jamie Gulpilil, was part of the cast, which was mostly drawn from Ramingining.

Hood became his caregiver after he was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in 2017.

He is survived by his sisters, Mary and Evonne, his daughters, Makia and Phoebe, and his sons, Jamie and Jida.

The director Peter Weir said during an interview in New York in 1977 while promoting his supernatural thriller The Last Wave that Gulpilil had created untold personal tensions by straddling two disparate cultures.

“He’s enigmatic. He’s an actor, a dancer, a musician. He’s a tribal man, initiated in the tribal ways,” Weir said. “He has a foot in both cultures. It’s an enormous strain on the man.”

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    Mute Jason Bourne
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    Sep 7th 2012, 7:34 AM

    Recover from what? Their deficit?

    They are now 16 trillion (Yes TRILLION – thats 16,000 Billion Dollars) in debt.

    They borrow froma private bank called the Federal Reserve. The only thing federal about it is it’s name.

    They create money out of thin air and lend it to the US government. How, someone tell me, how can you borrow money at interest and expect to pay it back when the sum owed is greater than the total sum that exists.
    Tell me!!!

    Same crap happening here where everyone is in debt. When you cannot control your own money supply and create it and destroy it when needed, you run into a deficit. And the Rothschilds win.

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    Mute Dmc
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    Sep 7th 2012, 8:05 AM

    Jason, I can’t agree more. I know I’m drifting away slightly from this article but I dare anyone here who is in trouble with their mortgage to ask their bank to prove that they owned the money that was loaned out and to prove the money wasn’t printed out of thin air. Paying back interest on something that was printed out of thin air is crazy. Also on top of this, the banks usually sell on your loan so I’m sure there might be issues of contract on top of this. Bring back the gold standard and stop this thieves!

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    Mute Dmc
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    Sep 7th 2012, 8:49 AM

    AIB, Ulster Bank, TSB, EBS etc just red thumbed me!!!

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    Mute Sean O'Keeffe
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    Sep 7th 2012, 9:31 AM

    ” The legacy of Democrats and Republicans approaches: Libertarianism by bankruptcy.”

    Nick Nuessle

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    Mute Economicopoly
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    Sep 7th 2012, 10:26 AM

    DMC , I despise alot of what the banks have done and still continue to do, but the myth that private banks “create money out of thin air” is just that. When a bank issues a loan, it is held as an asset on the balance sheet but the capital reserves of the bank are depleted to make the loan, if the loan goes sour it becomes a liability. If banks simply print money out of thin air as you suggest , how could they ever go broke? The Central Bank can print “money” out of thin air, paper money and the more you print the less valuable each note becomes. It undermines the legitimacy of the overwhelming argument against what the banks have done and how many continue to profit despite the unprecedented damage they caused and already profited from.

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    Mute Una Dev
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    Sep 7th 2012, 10:54 AM

    Jason.
    Federal taxes are at a 58 year low,and America has debts to prove it. Lets go to Clinton era tax rates where 22 million jobs were created and government has a supples for a few years until W. Bush spent the money and borrowed trillions more on tax cuts for top 1% and wars.

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    Mute Economicopoly
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    Sep 7th 2012, 11:01 AM

    Yes UNA but asking people earning millions every year to pay more than 15% tax into the society and economy they generate their income from , is an assault on freedom and class warfare. It’s Socialism see but not for my medicaid, the lower income earners should pay the people earning these salaries for all the jobs they have created aside from all the tax that is already spend on corporate welfare, and cut funding on education, health and assisting the most impoverished but spend more on “Defense”. It’s looney and yet this looney view has a good shot of taking the presidency. in the long run maybe the idiots that support this need to experience this agenda at it’s zenith to realise they are only pawns for avaracious immoral financial interests.

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    Mute Apple Core
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    Sep 7th 2012, 11:42 AM

    Economicopoly, you are simply wrong. This is what they are supposed to do which is very different from what they actually do. Jason and DMC are correct in what they say.
    If any person with a loan or mortgage in this country asks their bank to prove the validity of the loan they will receive some very interesting answers.

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    Mute Raymond Connolly
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    Sep 7th 2012, 8:53 AM

    He is a liar like our own politicians.

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    Mute Tony Groome
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    Sep 7th 2012, 7:44 AM

    Remind anyone of “turning a corner” crap we hear over here??

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    Mute Paul Mallon
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    Sep 7th 2012, 7:47 AM

    A bit, it was a hell of a lot better than Romney’s speech though.

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    Mute Neil McAuley
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    Sep 7th 2012, 7:54 AM

    His speeches about ‘turning corners’ ‘change’ and all the other waffle are tiresome old hat except for die hard democrats and hardcore Obama fanbois. Less speeches if u get a second term Mr President and more action on fulfilling ur myriad promises

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    Mute Stephen Maher
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    Sep 7th 2012, 9:36 AM

    Echoes of The Distinguished Gentleman anyone?

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    Mute Ryan Allen
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    Sep 7th 2012, 8:56 AM

    The biggest clue of all is probably in the last two paragraphs. Obama won in 2008 by spending more than any other candidate before – spending $760m verses McCain’s $346m. Now the trend is in reverse it seems:

    “Money has become an ever-present concern for the Democrats, an irony given the overwhelming advantage Obama held over John McCain in the 2008 campaign. This time, Romney is outpacing him, and independent groups seeking the Republican’s election are pouring tens of millions of dollars into television advertising, far exceeding what Obama’s supporters can afford.”

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    Mute Economicopoly
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    Sep 7th 2012, 10:55 AM

    08 also has a huge surge in voting numbers under 28 , majority of the increase was for Obama, people too apathetic to vote voted for Obama, having witnessed the many u turns and concessions he made, although this group probably won’t be voting for Romney alot of them are certainly less motivated to vote for Obama again. On the other hand Romney is a joke, he pays 15% tax on an annual salary of approx $30 million, wants to lower this further and cut funding to many social services, in what other developed democracy could a candidate stand a chance with such a position. Sadly american politics has completely descended into the manipulation of ignorance, the more money and the less principled (which often go hand in hand anyway) the interest group is, the easier it is to manipulate the masses of ignorance use the ever intangible concept of freedom as the smokescreen to further any agenda. Every speech has to be on cliches and soundbites, and cannot vear away from the intellectual level of small children, there are of course many incredibly intelligent people in the U.S. most of them manipulating and exploiting the majority of Americans who are incredibly ignorant, keep cutting education it all gets easier.

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    Mute Cian Doherty
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    Sep 7th 2012, 12:33 PM

    Fairly extensive report shame you didn’t do the same for his opponents speech last week. Then again the journal is rooting for Obama.

    #Bias.

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    Mute Damien Flinter
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    Sep 7th 2012, 12:53 PM

    Jaysis, Cian…rooting??

    At least O’Bambi won’t FALL on the shagging button….Mitt would think he was ringing it for a flunkie..and his sidekick Vice is just as grounded.

    Either way, the Pentagon took over a long time back..even under Kennedy they wanted to grow mushrooms on Moscow over Cuba. The generals saw it as an OPPERTUNITY. Their dreams are now being realised, thanks largely to Dick ‘Halliburton’ Cheyney&Co.

    You a Mitt man??If so, explain the advantages.

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    Mute Cian Doherty
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    Sep 7th 2012, 1:22 PM

    Who I’m supporting is irrelevant to my post, i was pointing out the fact that the journal made no mention of one candidates speech last week but yet posted this in depth report to the other’s…which is bias.

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    Mute Val Kearney
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    Sep 7th 2012, 2:16 PM

    Probably had something to do with them not having a lot to go off from his opponents speech. If you’re looking for an ommitance of an argument, of facts and of intelligent debate from a speech, step on up and Vote Republican!

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    Mute Paul Mallon
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    Sep 7th 2012, 7:44 AM
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    Mute Economicopoly
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    Sep 7th 2012, 10:45 AM

    Well spotted, that is tremendously embarrasing, a complete charade, had he called it once it would have had more credibility but he did few times, all the same and then said it was 2/3 majority, it’s actually very disturbing and a perfect example of the charade of democracy that America has invaded countries on the alleged advancement of.

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    Mute Val Kearney
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    Sep 7th 2012, 2:20 PM

    The only way Obama won’t get re-elected is if Republican attempts to limit the amounts of eligable voters in the states, like they did to get Bush elected, are successful.

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    Mute Damien Flinter
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    Sep 7th 2012, 2:28 PM

    I believe they’ve been working on that at state level, especially in marginals..gerrymandering poor black voters out of the picture again…not that I think nice Democrats wouldn’t..but its easier eliminate the poor.

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Sep 7th 2012, 10:50 AM
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    Mute Damien Flinter
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    Sep 7th 2012, 12:01 PM

    Obama’s best argument remains…MiTT-de-chimp’s-double-Tea Party…America remains terrified into idiocracy by its corporate lobbies of media distortion…with the fundamentalist religious Right military-industrial leaders of the pack baying for blood and oil.

    Prognosis: terminal somatosis of the cerebrum.

    Gotta go..drone on the phone..and coming soon..one for everyone in the audien…………….

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    Mute DK Innovation
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    Sep 7th 2012, 12:18 PM

    When looking at the facts it is hard to see why this race is close at all.
    Romney
    Hasn’t met an issue he hasn’t changed his mind on.
    Has a economiv plan which dosen’t add up.
    Won’t relaease details on Spending Cuts for his 5 billion
    Will bankrupt Medicare in four years
    Has an positive attitude to regulations which caused the crisis
    Supportted by a party which openly said they would throw the country under the bus to gain power

    Obama
    Reduced the Deficeit
    Created 4.5 million private jobs
    Reduced spending
    Reduced Taxes

    While it would be better if Obama achieved more, at least he is part of the solution. Romney is saying things that makes part of the problem, his only saving grace is that he is an eternal flip flopper…

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    Mute Damien Flinter
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    Sep 7th 2012, 2:13 PM

    No mention??
    I suggest you do a search. There is coverage of both Romney and Ryan. And more.
    Why would the Journal ‘root’??I’m sure they have their preferences..but the general readership can’t vote in the election, despite the local consequences of the outcome. Maybe they didn’t want to embarrass Mitt by quoting his eloquence.

    And my comment has the same ‘relevance’ as your original one. Except yours was an assertive assumption, mine a polite enquiry.

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