Napolean Oui: Rainforest People

PLEASE NOTE: This film contains images of Aboriginal people now deceased.

Artist Napolean Oui, a Djabugay man, is focussed on his research about his cultural heritage. It is from this research and its findings that Napolean has developed his contemporary art practice and distinctive style of art making.

This film is set in Napolean's studio in Cairns, North Queensland. Napolean and Peter Hylands discuss what life would have been like for the Indigenous people who called the North Queensland rainforest home.

North Queensland's tropical rainforests covered the coastal region between what is now the Bloomfield River in the North and Townsville in the South and inland through the ranges and tablelands. These forests stretched for 500 kilometres along the coastal ranges, an area of more than 25,000 square kilometres containing some of the most precious rainforest on earth.

Tribal groups living in these extensive rainforests were Banjin, Bar-Barrum, Djabugay, Djiru, Girramay, Gulngay, Gunggandji, Jirball, Koko Muluridji, Kuku Yalanji, Ma:Mu, Ngadjon-Jii, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Warungnu, Yidinji and Yirrganydji.

Running time: 26 mins