The Multiple Being: Multispecies Ethnographic Filmmaking in Arnhem Land, Australia

Ethnographic filmmaking can be an effective way of discovering layers of meaning, in this instance the concept of the “multiple animal,” where a significant animal’s multiplicity is revealed through ceremony and everyday encounters. Here we combine more-than-human sociality and multispecies ethnography with observational filmmaking, in relation to my own filmmaking and the earlier work of Ian Dunlop, and in collaboration with Yolngu communities in northeastern Arnhem Land. A re-examination of Dunlop’s visual ethnography, supplemented by my more recent film work, offers new insights into Yolngu perceptions about other beings, beyond symbolic metaphors and totems.This research was part of an ANU postdoctoral research fellowship, with additional fieldwork funding from the ANU from 2011 until 2014. I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo, Norway, who funded the workshop “Reconsidering the Classics” in 2016