Celebration of David Gulpilil planned for National Reconciliation Week
The late actor, who lived his last years in Murray Bridge, will be remembered in a line-up of films on NITV and SBS this month.
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The life and work of the late David Gulpilil will be celebrated with a line-up of films and documentaries on NITV and SBS On Demand during National Reconciliation Week this month.
The actor, who lived out his last years in Murray Bridge, will feature in four films and four documentaries to be shown on TV across Australia across eight nights.
Included will be the premiere of Journey Home, David Gulpilil, a documentary about the incredible efforts of the Yolngu people to transport his body from Murray Bridge back to his ancestral home in Arnhem Land after his death in 2021.
The film won the 2026 AACTA Awards – the highest honour in Australian film, formerly the AFI Awards – for best documentary and best score.
It is narrated by actor Hugh Jackman and rapper Danzal Baker, better known as Baker Boy.
Also on the line-up will be My Name is Gulpilil, the documentary about the actor’s life which premiered in Murray Bridge only months before his death; an episode of Going Places, with Ernie Dingo, which visited Gulpilil in the Murraylands in 2021; and a 1980 doco, Walkabout to Hollywood.
The fact-based films will be interspersed with four features: The Last Wave, Walkabout, The Tracker and, of course, Storm Boy.
Gulpilil’s daughter, Phoebe Marson Gulpilil, said it meant a lot to the family that the actor was so fondly remembered in the Murraylands and across the world.
Meaningful, too, was the opportunity for the new film to share the final chapter in his story.
“This is (about) him, why he is the person he is, our family, our culture, and it feels very special to share it,” she told Murray Bridge News.
“You’re going to have to get your tissues … it’s beautiful, and very visually and emotionally intense.
“It’s exciting to share it for Reconciliation Week – Dad was always about sharing that journey, celebrating who you are.”
Yolngu country was a whole other world, she said, rich in culture and traditional knowledge.
Ms Marson Gulpilil remembered not just the celebrated dancer and actor, but the doting father who was happy just to go out for a feed of barramundi at the pub with the people he loved.
“The last three years, when I’d sit with him, I just remember … he was proud: proud of his family and of what he’s done,” she said.
“He didn’t need a lot – just having good people around him and a good old laugh.
“He’d just look at you with absolute love.
“I miss that a lot.”
His daughter spends her days promoting Indigenous culture in her own way, as a policy maker and consultant with Djarrka, a Yolngu-led firm based in Melbourne.
Asked about the significance of her father’s work being screened during National Reconciliation Week, she struck a thoughtful tone.
The project of reconciliation, the bringing-together of Australia’s original and migrant cultures, had suffered setbacks in recent years, but the work went on.
“There are small steps constantly happening, but they’re not always obvious,” she said.
“If you think about 10 years ago, we’re in a very different place.
“It can be difficult at times, but showing stories like this, things that bring us together, stories and experiences that make us feel something – Dad was really good at doing that, and this film is really good at doing that.
“Feeling something makes you want to learn more and ask questions.”
- Watch Journey Home, David Gulpilil: Tune into NITV at 8.30pm on Sunday, May 31 or search for the film on SBS On Demand. More of Gulpilil’s work will be shown in the evenings from May 27-June 3, and is available now at www.sbs.com.au.
