PUBLISHED06 Jun 2025
Journey Home, David Gulpilil at Sydney Film Festival 2025
We caught up with the film team to discuss their nomination for the Documentary Australia Award.
Documentary Australia-supported film Journey Home, David Gulpilil is a powerful record of grief, community and ceremony in which the renowned Indigenous actor is laid to rest on his Homeland of Gupulul in Arnhem Land, NT. Narrated by Hugh Jackman and cultural storyteller Baker Boy, Gulpilil’s story is skilfully chronicled by co-directors Maggie Miles and Trisha Morton-Thomas.
A Yolŋu man, Gulpilil lived a traditional life in the Arafura Swamp before being cast at age 16 in his first film, Walkabout, in 1971. He became an industry trailblazer, always navigating two worlds – although his Yolŋu culture was rarely in the spotlight.
Documentary Australia: What does it mean to you to be nominated for the Documentary Australia Award?
Maggie Miles & Trisha Morton-Thomas: Our team is humbled to be nominated for the Documentary Australia Award alongside the talent and extraordinary stories of the other finalists. We’re really happy that this brings a focus on what David Gulpilil’s family did for him after he passed away. What they faced was a huge mission, across the breadth of the country and through the most remote parts of Australia imaginable. They honoured him with ceremonies that connect to an unbroken line of culture back thousands and thousands of years. This depth of Australian culture is incredible to us and we’re stoked that Journey Home, David Gulpilil is the Old Man’s way of inviting everyone along to his funeral, or Bapurru in Yolngu.
DA: How did support from Documentary Australia help shape your journey?
MM & TMT: In the early days, when we filmed Witiyana Marika’s ceremonial send-off of David from South Australia, we knew we had recorded a remarkable event, but had no idea what was yet to come. We were fascinated by what happened and felt that we were following a story that surely others would be interested in also. Being a Documentary Australia-supported film gave us confidence and the energy to raise the important funds in quite a short timeframe so that we could capture the rest of the journey through to David being laid to rest, finally, after many years of separation from his country, at his Homeland of Gupulul.
DA: Do you have any advice for emerging filmmakers who want to create change through documentary?
MM & TMT: Advice we have for any emerging filmmaker and storyteller is follow your passion, and then find out who shares it. Impact through documentary can be achieved by an impact campaign and also in the experience people have of viewing the film. Documentary holds a special power. Filmmakers take a point of view and then hold a mirror up to the world, allowing insight into aspects of that world others may not have on their radar. That’s pretty cool, and a great way to connect, which is vital in order to create change.