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Alick Tipoti: Mask story

Documentaries

Moving image: Explore cultures and art making around the world

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Rainforest people: Napolean Oui

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.

Alick Tipoti: Mask story

We join Alick in Cairns, North Queensland as he makes a series of masks used in performance. Like so much of the Torres Strait Islander culture the atmosphere in the studio is powerful. Alick speaks in his language Kalaw Lagaw Ya.

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The master at work is an intimate portrait of artist, Peter Churcher, as he becomes an Australian war artist and contemplates a move to Spain. Filmed in 2005 in his studio in Prahran, Melbourne.

Djambawa Marawili: Rock of the fire

In this film we join the great Yolngu leader and artist Djambawa Marawili in his homeland of Baniyala, nestled so beautifully on the shores of Blue Mud Bay in East Arnhem Land.

Courage: The art of William Eicholtz

In this film we join sculptor William Eicholtz on a journey of creativity. The journey is contemporary but reflecting ancient techniques as William creates an important and complex work, full of skill and meaning.

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Unpacking a wood kiln and selecting pots: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

Now comes the nerve racking process of unpacking the kiln. Gwyn Hanssen Pigott unpacks the wood kiln and selects the final compositions of her works. Here the results confirm the joy of making.

Packing and firing a wood kiln: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

Pots glazed and dry, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott undertakes the delicate and time consuming task of preparing the wood kiln for the firing.

Throwing, turning and altering: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

Gwyn Hanssen Pigott demonstrates wheel throwing and turning and the altering of thrown forms.

Glazing: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

This is a complex and delicate task of selecting forms and colours. Gwyn Hanssen Pigott demonstrates the way in which the pots are glazed.

The art of making: Gwyn Hanssen Pigott

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Maasai: Keeping knowledge

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Maasai: Enkang life

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The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Arrival song

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The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Leaving song

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“Language stands in the middle, art branches off from that, performing art, dance, song, any practice in life from our Melanesian culture branches off of that”. Alick Tipoti

March 7, 2025
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Duration
6.14
Director
Andrea and Peter Hylands
Cinematography
Rob Pignolet
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We join Alick in Cairns, North Queensland as he makes a series of masks used in performance. Like so much of the Torres Strait Islander culture the atmosphere in the studio is powerful. Alick speaks in his language Kalaw Lagaw Ya.

Alick Tipoti was born on Waiben Island, Torres Strait, in1975. This was precisely the moment that Andrea and I were making our first journeys into Far North Queensland and to Cape York and meeting Indigenous Australians for the first time. It was also the time we began to collect the artworks of Aboriginal and Melanesian culture.  

In the intervening years, Alick has become a notable cultural figure and a highly skilled and now famous artist.

Andrea and I have been lucky enough to travel with Alick to Badu and Moa Islands and to meet the elders, his family and many of his friends. We learn from Alick just how precious the culture, the languages, the art and performance of the Torres Strait are, and how skilled and creative the artists of the region are.

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We acknowledge the importance of the languages of the Torres Strait.

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Related Documentaries

Zugub, the mask, the spirits and the stars

Zugub, the mask, the spirits and the stars

In this documentary Alick Tipoti describes his culture, recalling the legends of his land through music and dance and art making. We travel to his home island of Badu in the Torres Strait.

WATCH FULL VIDEO
The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Arrival song

The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Arrival song

Ken Thaiday takes us on a remarkable and personal journey to Erub in the Torres Strait.

WATCH FULL VIDEO
The sea, the feather and the dance machine: Leaving song

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Billy Missi

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WATCH FULL VIDEO
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