Television Reviews : ‘Twilight of Dreamtime’ Charts End of a Culture

With “Australia’s Twilight of the Dreamtime,” the National Geographic Society and its production partner, WQED of Pittsburgh, surpass even their usual excellence (tonight at 8 on Channels 28, 50, 15 and 24). They transport us to Kakadu National Park on the remote northern coast of Australia, where the Gagudju aborigine tribe has lived continuously for 40,000 years.

There are plenty of those beautiful macro-closeups of wildlife--everything from knob-tailed geckos licking their lidless eyes to feeding crocodiles to kangaroos tenderly grooming themselves. And we watch sea eagles on the wing making one-talon catches of fish and kick-boxing wallabees and bower-building birds.

But the stars of this masterful special are the Gagudju, who have always lived in close harmony with their environment. To them, man and animals and plants and Earth are one big life force.

The tribal elders of the Gagudju maintain this union with nature by enacting an ancient lore that includes art, myth and “aboriginal laws.” But they are dying off and there are no young men to replace these custodians of what is called “the longest unbroken culture the world has ever known.” The more aggressive culture of modern man has lured the young men away.

Tribal elder Nipper Kapirigi, the keeper of the stories of Dreamtime (genesis), tells myths that explain how the Gagudju’s rugged but bountiful land was formed.

His visit to a sacred rock face to speak to the spirits becomes a powerful symbol of the war of colliding cultures that the Gagudju have already lost. Nipper wears only a loin cloth and a headband. His wife, who trails behind him hunting crocodile eggs in the stream bank, wears a flower-print dress and a golf shirt that could have been purchased at Sears.

With the only editorializing coming from the sad drone of the didgeridoo, Stanley Breeden and Belinda Wright (co-producers/co-photographers) have lovingly documented a culture and a noble way of life. In the process they have also created--in every sense--a beautiful work of art.