FILM AUSTRALIA PRESENTS
The Pilot’s Funeral
Bundurr Mangalili Yolngu
Dhupundji*
In life Adrian Wagg forged an extraordinary connection with Arnhem Land and its people; in
death he was given a remarkable Yolngu burial, an ancient ceremony revived in his honour.
Writer/Director Rose Hesp
Producer/Editor Denise Haslem
Co-producer Trevor Graham
Executive Producer Penny Robins
Duration 26 minutes
* This Yolngu title for the film literally translates as “The ashes of the Mangalili man lies in
the sacred hollow log”.
A Film Australia National Interest Program. Produced with the assistance of the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation.
Film Australia © 2004
AN AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT OWNED COMPANY, FILM AUSTRALIA IS A LEADING PRODUCER AND
DISTRIBUTOR OF TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS.
www.filmaust.com.au
THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
Synopses
One line synopsis
In life Adrian Wagg forged an extraordinary connection with Arnhem Land and its people; in
death he was given a remarkable Yolngu burial, an ancient ceremony revived in his honour.
One paragraph synopsis
When Adrian Wagg arrived in Arnhem Land in the 1970s, he fell in love with the place and
its people, helping the Yolngu to build homes on their ancestral lands and establish their
own airline. This moving documentary recounts the life of this gentle giant of a man. But
more than this, it tells of the extraordinary ten-day funeral that followed his tragic death in a
helicopter accident. Not performed since the arrival of missionaries in the 1930s, the
traditional Yolngu ceremony celebrates a remarkable bond, connecting black and white,
people and land, past and future.
One page synopsis
Adrian Wagg arrived in Arnhem Land in the 1970s, a young man newly wed and looking for
adventure. He soon fell in love with the place and its people, helping the Yolngu to build
homes on their ancestral lands and establish their own airline.
The Pilot's Funeral recounts the life of this gentle giant of a man. But more than this, it tells
of the extraordinary ten-day funeral ceremony that followed his tragic death in a helicopter
accident.
Not since the arrival of missionaries in the 1930s had the Aboriginal people of northeast
Arnhem Land buried their dead in a dhakandjali, a sacred painted hollow log. But on a June
afternoon in 2002 in the remote Northern Territory community of Yirrkala, the Yolngu people
revived this ancient practice – not for an Indigenous person, but for this white man who they
embraced as one of their own.
The ceremony, captured in this moving documentary, celebrates a remarkable bond,
connecting black and white, people and land, past and future.
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THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
About the making of the film by writer/director Rose Hesp
When we began filming The Pilot’s Funeral we didn’t know Adrian Wagg or his family. We’d
only just arrived up north when asked by the Yolngu, the people of northeast Arnhem Land,
to film the traditional hollow-log burial ceremony they conducted in his honour. So
extraordinary were the scenes we found ourselves recording, we knew we had the basis of a
terrific documentary. But it was a long journey to the final film. And our first meeting with
Adrian’s widow Sally—our wonderful central character—was difficult.
In June 2002 when Adrian was tragically killed, Trevor Graham, Denise Haslem and I were
in Yirrkala making another Film Australia documentary, Lonely Boy Richard. We had arrived
only a few weeks before Adrian’s helicopter went missing on June 5. The alarm was raised
when Adrian failed to make a scheduled refueling stop while conducting a routine survey for
a proposed gas pipeline through Arnhem Land.
A massive aerial search was launched and, although newcomers, we felt first-hand the
apprehension, then the shock experienced by the entire community when the burnt-out
wreckage was discovered next day. Everything stopped as the community mourned.
The helicopter belonged to the Yolngu. It was the flagship of their airline, Laynhapuy
Aviation. Adrian, their pilot, was deeply loved. It was his idea to start the helicopter service
for the community 15 years earlier. But their shared history went further back to 1972 when
he had first come to them as a young carpenter. Together they built the first tin and bushtimber houses when the Yolngu of Yirrkala Mission led the historic movement back to their
ancestral homelands.
We knew none of this back then. But on the day the wreckage was found I realised I had
met Adrian and had even flown with him. In 1987, I was working as a television reporter,
based in Darwin filing for Channel Ten in Sydney. My first trip to Arnhem Land was to shoot
a news story about Australia’s first Aboriginal owned and operated helicopter. The pilot was
Adrian Wagg and the helicopter was Laynhapuy Aviation’s first aircraft.
A few days after Adrian’s accident we met senior ceremonial leader Djambawa Marawili in
Yirrkala. We were told he had come in from his homeland at Yilpara to stage a big funeral
ceremony for “the pilot” (it is against Yolngu law to name the dead): a traditional hollow-log
coffin burial not performed since the missionaries established Yirrkala in the 1930s. We
sensed something significant was about to take place and wondered whether we’d be able
to catch a glimpse.
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THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
That afternoon we were at the weekly football match at Yirrkala’s community oval when we
were approached by a messenger from Djambawa. “Come now with your camera. It’s
started,” we were told.
Trevor left immediately and began filming the Yolngu men painting the sacred burial log
(dhakandjali) in a thicket, enclosed by tarp, next to Adrian’s house. We didn’t know why or
what for, but agreed to film without hesitation. Next day I joined Trevor to help record sound.
As a woman I was not allowed to enter the men’s only ‘shaded area’ so when Trevor went in
there to film I waited nearby.
This was when we first met Adrian’s widow, Sally. Her brother emerged from the Wagg
family home and demanded to know what we were doing. Sally was with him and was
obviously upset about our presence. Trevor and I were mortified. We believed Adrian’s
widow had been consulted and had agreed to the ceremony being filmed. It transpired that
the Yolngu had thought someone had spoken to her, but they hadn’t. Sally thought we were
intruding on their grief and filming the ceremony for that night’s news.
After careful explanations on our part Sally tentatively agreed to let us continue on the
proviso that we also consulted her about any future use of the footage. Kindly she then
invited me inside for a cuppa and introduced me to her family, relatives and friends from
“down south” who’d converged on this remote corner of Arnhem Land. Outside, the funeral
ceremony was in full swing. Inside, everyone was staggered by what the Yolngu were doing
for Adrian.
The homelands had emptied out as men, women and children poured into Yirrkala for the
ten-day funeral. It became the largest burial ceremony seen since the death of their
community leader Roy Marika in 1993. And it all happened in Adrian’s backyard overlooking
the sea, with Sally’s washing flapping on the hills hoist in the corner.
We filmed as the Yolngu gathered around an oval-shaped “sand pit” called a yingapungapu,
a sacred sand sculpture representing clan and country. Here with clapsticks and didgeridoo
they performed the ritual funeral songs and dances that are part of Yolngu law.
Inside the shaded “men’s (only) area”, the painting of the hollow log or dhakandjali continued
day and night—intricate patterns and motifs representing the land, sea and rocks of Adrian’s
adopted country. As they worked the men talked about Adrian and his life with them, and
sang the farewell songs according to Yolngu custom.
Adrian was “adopted” by the Mangalili people from Djarrakpi, an outstation south of Yirrkala.
When he first came to Yirrkala, he worked closely with the son of Narritjin Maymuru, a
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THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
renowned Mangalili leader and artist, and was adopted, in the Yolngu way, as a “son” into
the clan.
There was tremendous commitment and pride in what was unfolding. “Now we are bringing
back the past,” ceremonial leader Djambawa Marawili announced. “This is a big, big history.
This is what we call reconciliation between Ngapaki [white people] and Yolngu…We have
forged a new relationship with this ceremony.”
The final day of the funeral ceremony was electrifying as the hollow log, containing Adrian’s
ashes and some of his clothing, was carried coffin-style out of the men’s area into public
view for the first time. Wedged among the Yolngu pallbearers were Adrian’s sons, Daniel
and Tim, struggling with their load, their grief and the intensity of the moment. Amid wailing,
dancing and singing the burial pole was finally laid to rest, upright, in the backyard. It was
highly dramatic and incredibly emotional.
When it was all over, Trevor, Denise and I went back to work on Lonely Boy Richard, the
documentary we’d gone to Yirrkala to make. We also translated all the material shot during
Adrian’s funeral — not just words but meanings or intentions for music, song, dance and
motifs. This took weeks. Not any Yolngu speaker would do for these more complex
ceremony translations. Always the right person whose clan owned or belonged to that song,
dance or painted image had to be found, often literally.
During this time I occasionally saw Sally in the nearby mining town of Nhulunbuy where we
all did our shopping. I would smile and say hello. I remember once, not long after the crash,
seeing her talking to a friend and wondered how she was managing. A year and a half later
she told us she still expected Adrian to walk through the door; only then did I begin to
understand the full extent of her loss and grief.
We finished the translation of the funeral footage and gave Sally a copy. Around this time I
asked if I could interview her for a magazine story about Adrian’s life and work in Arnhem
Land. She agreed and before we left Yirrkala in January 2003, I also interviewed her eldest
son Daniel Wagg, Jonetani Rika from the Laynhapuy Homelands Association and
Dhunggala Munungurr from Garthalala homeland, who all appear in our film.
Back in Sydney, Trevor suggested I use the interviews and ceremony translations to write a
treatment for a documentary instead. Sally and the Yolngu all supported the idea, which
received backing from Film Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In
December 2003, almost a year after we’d left, we returned to Arnhem Land for three weeks
to film interviews and location sequences in and around Yirrkala.
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THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
We went to Garthalala outstation to film the remains of the first tin and bush-timber houses
Adrian built with the Yolngu during the birth of the homelands movement 30 years before.
We interviewed Sally in her house, just metres from where Adrian’s funeral ceremony was
staged and where his burial pole now stands. We filmed her on trips to the homelands in her
role as an aged care worker for the Yolngu. And we captured the unique flying taxi service
offered by Laynhapuy Aviation for the people of the homelands which Adrian founded and
his oldest son Daniel now manages.
As well as this new material, we returned laden with Sally’s family photographs and hours of
Hi-8 footage Adrian had taken over the years at home and at work. These helped bring
Adrian the man—pilot, father, beloved husband and grandfather—to life on screen as did
archival footage supplied by Burrundi Pictures, Exposure Productions, Stephen Johnson and
the Australian Children's Television Foundation (Yolngu Boy).
In addition, never-before-seen 16mm film footage of Adrian working with the Yolngu was
unearthed from Film Australia’s archive by Ian Dunlop, who directed the seminal Yirrkala
Project with the Yolngu in the 1970s and 80s.
The Pilot’s Funeral was edited at Film Australia’s studios in Sydney. What presented as a
reconciliation story on the page emerged in the cutting room into something purer: a love
story between a man, his wife and a people.
Twenty months after Adrian’s funeral, Sally came down to see the near-completed film. A
few weeks later Denise and I returned to Yirrkala to show the Yolngu. We stayed with Sally
in her house by the sea and she offered the use of her TV room for our screenings.
For three days and nights, scores of Yolngu streamed through her place to view the film.
Watching it with them, only metres from where the ceremony actually took place, added to
the intensity and poignancy of the screenings. The Yolngu were unanimous in their approval
of the film. For us, this made the long road worth every moment. By chance we had filmed a
remarkable event; one that spoke volumes for love, loyalty and respect between black and
white Australia.
Rose Hesp
Writer/Director, The Pilot’s Funeral
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THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
About the filmmakers
Rose Hesp – Writer/Director
Co-producer and writer of the 2003 Film Australia documentary Lonely Boy Richard,
Rose Hesp is a documentary filmmaker and TV journalist with a strong interest in social
justice issues. For 16 years, she has worked as a news and current affairs reporter/producer
for Channel 7, ABC and SBS, including two years with the Northern Territory edition of
The 7.30 Report.
The Pilot’s Funeral is Rose’s first project as a director.
In 1998 Rose graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School with her
award-winning documentary Relative Strangers. She went on to be co-writer and line
producer of Tosca: A Tale of Love & Torture, which screened on the ABC. More recently
Rose produced Small Island, Big Fight, a documentary about the simmering sea rights issue
in the Torres Strait.
Denise Haslem ASE – Producer/Editor
Denise Haslem is a producer and editor with over 20 years’ experience in the film and
television industry. Producer and editor on the 2003 Film Australia documentary Lonely Boy
Richard, Denise produced and edited the award winning Mabo–Life of an Island Man and
has also produced DOC–A Portrait of Herbert Vere Evatt, A Calcutta Christmas, coproduced Risky Business and Steel City, and was consultant producer of Ordinary People.
In 2002, Denise was producer, director and editor of Film Australia’s Outback DVD.
Denise’s editing credits include many award-winning programs including Custody, My Life
Without Steve, Canto a la Vida, The Night Belongs To The Novelist, Six Pack, Admission
Impossible, Australia Daze, For All The World To See, The Opposite Sex, Aeroplane Dance,
Mystique of the Pearl, Our Park, Hatred, Tosca–A Tale of Love and Torture and
Minymaku Way.
Between 1998 and 1999 she was the President of the Australian Screen Editors (ASE), the
guild devoted to protecting, promoting and improving the role of the editor. In 2002 she was
a recipient of an inaugural ASE accreditation.
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THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
Trevor Graham – Co-producer
Trevor Graham is an acclaimed Australian documentary producer and director.
His documentaries have been screened and broadcast around the world.
Trevor has produced and directed films for Channel 4, BBC, PBS, ABC and SBS. He was
the writer/director of the 2003 Film Australia documentary Lonely Boy Richard and his other
films include Land Bilong Islanders (1989), Aeroplane Dance (1993), Sugar Slaves (1994),
Punchlines (1993) and Mystique of the Pearl (1995).
Trevor’s films have won numerous national and international film and television awards. In
1995 Aeroplane Dance won a Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, and the
Royal Anthropological Society’s distinguished Basil Wright Prize. In 1997 Mabo – Life of an
Island Man won the AFI for Best Documentary, the NSW Premier’s History Award and the
NSW Premier’s Award for Best Screenplay.
In 1999 Trevor co-directed an interactive CD-ROM and website for Film Australia, Mabo–
The Native Title Revolution. He is the director, writer and narrator of Mabo–Life of an Island
Man and director and co-writer (with Rose Hesp) of Tosca–A Tale of Love and Torture.
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THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
Credits
The Producers wish to thank Sally Wagg and family
and the people of north east Arnhem Land
OUR SPECIAL THANKS TO THE PARTICIPANTS
Sally Wagg, Daniel Wagg, Tim Wagg,
Baluka Maymuru, Nuwandjali Marawili, Dhunggala
Munungurr, Galuma Maymuru, Wukun Wanambi,
Bob Wagg, Jonetani Rika, Mick Helms, Klaus
Helms, Raymattja Marika, Gawarrin Gumana
Camera
GRAHAM STEELE
Funeral Ceremony Camera & Direction
TREVOR GRAHAM
Additional Camera
JENNI MEANEY
BONNIE ELLIOT
Sound Recordist
TREVOR GRAHAM
Funeral Ceremony Sound Recordist
ROSE HESP
Aerials filmed by
STEPHEN JOHNSON
For Burrundi Pictures
Sound Mix
MICHAEL GISSING
Sound Facilities
DIGITAL CITY STUDIOS
Piano
ALISTER SPENCE
Cello
JOHN NAPIER
Piano recorded at
SONY MUSIC STUDIO
Engineer
LOUISE WHEATLEY
Picture Conform
KRISTIAN ANDERSON
Colourist
TRISTAN LA FONTAINE
Online Editor
LUKE SLOANE
Titler
ROBERT FIRTH
FRAME SET & MATCH
Translations
DJALINDA ULAMARI, DENNIS WANAMBI,
RAYMATTJA MARIKA, RALKURRU MARIKA,
MALUMIN MARAWILI, BUWATPUY GUMANA,
DJARRAYANG WUNUNGMURRA
Translations of the Funeral Ceremony by
permission of
GAWARRIN GUMANA, DJAMBAWA MARAWILI,
DENNIS WANAMBI, BANAMBI WUNUNGMURRA,
WANYUBI MARIKA
Transcripts
CLEVERTYPES
FILM AUSTRALIA PRODUCTION UNIT
Production Affairs Manager
LIZ STEVENS
Production Accountant
LIANE WRIGHT
Executive Producer’s Assistant
REBECCA WEBB
JANE MANNING
Production Assistant
SUEANNE FLYGHT
ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE
Sally & Daniel Wagg
Film Australia
Dhimurru Land Management Aboriginal Corporation
Australian Children’s Television Foundation
ABC Footage Sales
Exposure Productions, Darwin
Joyce Warnock, Stephen Johnson
Country & Western Music
BMG ZOMBA
THE PRODUCERS WISH TO THANK
Djimiyan Maymuru
Wirilma Mununggurr
Laklak Marika Yunipingu
Djambawa Marawili
Gawarrin Gumana
Wakathi Marawili
Nancy Wagg
Mr Munungurritj
Multhara Mununggurr
Laynhapuy Aviation & Staff
Laynhapuy Homelands Association
Yirrkala Dhanbul Community Association Council
Dhimurru Land Management Aboriginal Corporation
Samara Wagg & Shayla
Alice, Kaneesha & Jayden Wagg
Dennis Wukun Wanambi & family
Wanyubi Marika & family
Burrundi Pictures
Todd Williams, Sue Mornane
Yothu Yindi Foundation
Allan James, Brittar Decker
Australian Children’s Television Foundation
Bernadette Mahoney
Exposure Productions, Darwin
Andrew Hyde
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THE PILOT’S FUNERAL • A FILM AUSTRALIA NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
Will Stubbs, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr & Siena
Victor Roseverne
Jessica South & Lyndon Snelling
Ian & Rosemary Dunlop
Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre & Museum
Staff of Yirrkala Dhanbul Childcare Centre
Wayne Shields, ABC Radio News, Darwin Lorraine
Davies, Peter Doyle
Sharon Connolly, Ned Lander
John & Robert Hesp, Angelita Graham
Composer
ALISTER SPENCE
Co Producer
TREVOR GRAHAM
Producer & Editor
DENISE HASLEM ASE
Writer & Director
ROSE HESP
Produced with the assistance of the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation
ABC Executive Producer
DAVID JOWSEY
Executive Producer
PENNY ROBINS
A NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM
Film Australia Ltd
© MMIV
www.filmaust.com.au
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