Past and future combine in this new multimedia work, a collaboration between traditional Indigenous culture and contemporary film and sound design, and an insight into Warlpiri culture and Warlpiri Country (also known as the Tanami Desert area).
I was privileged to attend its world premiere at Brown’s Mart Theatre on Saturday, August 9th, alongside a group of school children from Lajamanu, who were as mesmerised as the older members of the audience by the film we saw.
Crown and Country blends cultural knowledge and songlines with modern music, and is a collaboration between Warlpiri philosopher Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu and non-Indigenous composer and filmmaker Marc ‘Monkey’ Peckham. The film interrogates ‘Australian identity’ through Wanta’s philosophy of inclusion, and features Wanta’s father, senior Warlpiri songman Jerry Jangala Patrick OAM.
The film has a beautifully rendered cyclic theme, captured in repeated images of circles, and a striking appearance by Wanta’s grandson Keshawn Jampijinpa Patrick, in ceremonial body paint representing the emu chick.
Wanta explains the importance of the emu in Warlpiri culture, in that a celestial emu (part of the Milky Way) wears the Crown (the Southern Cross), as referenced in the film’s title.
In Warlpiri culture the two moieties are the Earth and the Sky, and this is captured in the film. Footage taken via a drone is skillfully used to imitate the bird’s eye view of the Wedge-tailed eagle, also an important bird in Warlpiri culture.
Fire is another recurring image in the film. The mix of traditional song and modern music blends the old and the new, underlining the theme of ‘passing the fire stick’, passing the knowledge.
A key section of the film features Jangala drawing a kangaroo in the sand to illustrate ancient trade routes across the land. Here, trade also means sharing knowledge via songlines, sharing songs with clans across the continent.
Crown and Country is a generous gift from Wanta and Jangala, with Wanta saying that knowing your country is the birthright of all Australians. But Wanta is not didactic in sharing his philosophy. ‘I was born at the wrong time,’ he comments in the film, but then continues, ‘or maybe the right time.’
After the screening, Wanta spoke of a desire to preserve the knowledge of Elders raised on Country in the old ways, and celebrate new generations sharing it. A sense that although the world is always changing, there can be continuity, for all people.
Crown and Country was screened at Brown’s Mart Studio as part of Darwin Festival 2025
BY SALLY BOTHRYD