Join us on Friday, April 10 at 7 pm at the Violet Crown for an evening of films from the Tiwi Islands, Australia, held in conjunction with Michelle Pulatwayu Woody Minnapinni’s artist residency at Kluge-Ruhe. After the screening, Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni along with her nephew Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri and Emmy Monaghan (PhD student at the University of Virginia) will engage in a Q & A.

The 1977 film Good-Bye Old Man (65 minutes), directed by David MacDougall, documents a Pukumani (bereavement) ceremony at the request of a dying Tiwi man and his family. The film shows age-old traditions of ceremony, including spectacular facial and body decoration, ceremonial objects, and dance performance. It is narrated by one of the participants in the ceremony, Thomas Woody Minipini, not using a prepared script, but with his observations recorded as he watched the edited film.

The short film Kapala (Sailing Boat) Dance (1 min 58 sec) is a collaboration between Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni and her nephew, Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri, created in 2024. It is an exploration of the performative foundations of Tiwi artmaking utilizing new media.

A seven-minute interview with Woody provides a greater understanding and appreciation for the film Kapala (Sailing Boat) Dance and gives further context for her artwork.