Three horsemen [from the AIATSIS collection]

Streaming video - 2014

Three horsemen is one of several films that the MacDougalls made in and around Aurukun in the far north of Queensland. It is a deeply moving portrait of three generations of Aboriginal stockmen at Ti-Tree station, 80km south of Aurukun, a former cattle out-station of Aurukun Mission and now a settlement for people who regard Ti-Tree as their home. Bob Massey Pootchemunka, about 75 years old, has lived and worked all his life on cattle stations. He has a strong vision of Ti-Tree becoming a sustainable cattle station and feels a strong responsibility to teach "the proper way" to run the place, whether it be looking after leather-gear, mending fences or clearing scrub. Eric Pootchemunka, aged 46, is Bob's nephew. He shares Bob&#...039;s vision and works hard to teach younger people to be good horsemen and to develop a sense of Ti-Tree as their own place. Ian Pootchemunka, aged 13, is Eric's son. He keenly feels a responsibility to learn as much as he can, as fast as he can, and is aware that he embodies the hopes that Bob and Eric have for Ti-Tree's future."The Aurukun films are related to the complex process of the Aboriginal community there struggling to maintain and transmit its autonomy, culture and land. (Three horsemen) is a deeply metaphoric study of the precarious hopes and fragile demographic basis of transmitting Aboriginal cultural continuity." (Fred R. Myers in Cultural Anthropology, vol 3, no 2, May 1988, pp 206-212). A film by David and Judith MacDougall. more