Having been raised myself in the remote inland, taught by old bushmen and experienced in finding my way around, using firearms and able to feed myself off the land well before the age of 10, I found nothing lacking in the way of authenticity in this film beyond taking the viewer on a tour through different parts of the country where the actual track is far more prosaic.
This film does not compare with the old 'Walkabout', for example, but the more recent 'Ten Canoes', all featuring Gulpilil. His wise and engaging info-comic touch is unmistakable. The story isn't about survival in harsh terrain or dire consequences of making mistakes. That particular country is good during the dry with nothing dramatic to endure. From the beginning it is about Pete simply remembering his lessons, keeping a cool head, and knowing in which direction to travel.
Ten is a good age for healthy active boys to be out and about, as boys that age would have been traditionally in any culture. The clever young up-and-comers would be starting out by 7-8, and certainly all of them by 12-13. The singular disappointment is that Kalmain is lost by then, and off to child detention.
The contrasting loss of Indigenous culture or more reliably taking up contemporary Western mass-consumerism is thus shown for what it is; not great tragedy but self-centred, materialistic, pointless. Retaining the traditional bush lessons of elders on the other hand restores a sense of authentic self and belonging, capability and self-worth.
I thoroughly recommend this film, especially pitched as it is to children and young adults.
This film does not compare with the old 'Walkabout', for example, but the more recent 'Ten Canoes', all featuring Gulpilil. His wise and engaging info-comic touch is unmistakable. The story isn't about survival in harsh terrain or dire consequences of making mistakes. That particular country is good during the dry with nothing dramatic to endure. From the beginning it is about Pete simply remembering his lessons, keeping a cool head, and knowing in which direction to travel.
Ten is a good age for healthy active boys to be out and about, as boys that age would have been traditionally in any culture. The clever young up-and-comers would be starting out by 7-8, and certainly all of them by 12-13. The singular disappointment is that Kalmain is lost by then, and off to child detention.
The contrasting loss of Indigenous culture or more reliably taking up contemporary Western mass-consumerism is thus shown for what it is; not great tragedy but self-centred, materialistic, pointless. Retaining the traditional bush lessons of elders on the other hand restores a sense of authentic self and belonging, capability and self-worth.
I thoroughly recommend this film, especially pitched as it is to children and young adults.