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12 Canoes site get worldwide hits

[Press Release by CG Publicity]

12canoes.com.au, the new website from Arnhem Land’s Ramingining community together with filmmakers Molly Reynolds and Rolf de Heer has had visitors from 128 countries covering all 5 continents since going live on September 8.

A huge success to date, the website project initiated by the Ramingining community to share their culture with the world and record it for future generations, has had over 25,900 unique visits, with the majority of hits from countries including Australia, the US, Canada, Germany and visits from countries as far afield as Uzbekistan, Uganda, Greenland, the Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Iran and Kuwait.

Twelve Canoes is a comprehensive window into a culture and a way of life that the majority of the Australian population has never previously had the opportunity to experience and visitors are coming in their thousands.

The interconnectedness that is so intrinsic to Indigenous culture, is now being shared with all corners of the globe, via the communication channel that keeps the whole world connected, the web.

The Ramingining community of Arnhem Land lies in the remote north of Australia, part of an area recently named as the largest intact wilderness in the world in a study by international conservation organisations.

Now the whole world can visit this special place and in the spirit of the site, share with your friends and your community
12canoes.com.au – A site worth visiting.

When filmmaker Rolf de Heer collaborated with the Indigenous community of Ramingining to make the feature film Ten Canoes, which was released in more than 13 countries, the collaboration between storytelling filmmaker and storytelling culture brought to light far too many stories to be able to fit into the narrative of a feature film.

The idea was then born to create the website as a way of sharing with the world the stories and the culture, past and present, of the Yolngu people of the Ramingining community and the heritage-listed Arafura swamp in central Arnhem Land.

The high-end site is a work of art in itself; honouring the people of the Arafura Swamp, and built around twelve filmed “visual poems” describing and illustrating many aspects of Yolngu history, life and culture. These twelve stories can be viewed with Yolngu or English dialogue. Other features of the site include galleries which showcase Ramingining art and artists, music and songmen, language and common terms, and photographs that capture the essence of life in the area.

The Twelve Canoes website was designed and built by Wanted Digital, a creative digital agency whose ambition with the Twelve Canoes site was to create an immersive digital experience.

12canoes.com.au is being hosted by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia through their website. The National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s national cultural institution committed to safeguarding and making as accessible the national collection of audiovisual cultural heritage to the widest possible audience.

A two-disc DVD version of the 12 stories and selected video extras will be released through Ronin Films. A study guide for schools is also available.

Twelve Canoes was produced with the assistance of the Christensen Fund, Screen Australia, the South Australian Film Corporation and the National Film & Sound Archive.