How Ten Canoes made cinema history

In 2006, Ten Canoes made Australian cinema history. It became the first feature film performed entirely in Aboriginal languages and the first to bring a traditional Yolngu story to the screen.

Shot in the remote swamplands of Arnhem Land, the production relied on old anthropological photographs, clan languages and ancestral hunting knowledge to recreate life before European settlement.

For the cast, many of whom had never acted before, the experience was transformative. One of them was Frances Dulibing, chosen unexpectedly by director Rolf de Heer to play Nolingo, the jealous second wife at the centre of the story.

Filming meant confronting crocodile infested waters, performing in traditional clothing, and speaking the language rhythms of her own clan.

Frances tells Ashley Byrne how stepping into her ancestors’ world — and seeing it later on a cinema screen — became an emotional moment for her community, and how the film carried her from the swamps of Arnhem Land to red carpets in Paris. A Made in Manchester production.

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(Photo: The cast of Ten Canoes including Frances Dulibing (centre). Credit: Simon Fergusson/Getty Images)

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