karta pintingga ( the island of the dead )
Karta Pintingga (The Island of the Dead) is a silent mono-chromatic film about Karta Pintingga Kangaroo Island in South Australia. This visually poetic silent film references the Island’s dark human history. The Island has a long Indigenous history dating back over 45,000 years. Since its isolation from the Australian landmass 10,000 years ago, it was uninhabited by people until the arrival of Matthew Flinders in 1802 and European whalers who colonised it between 1803-1836. Karta Pintingga has cultural importance for Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri people. They have dark stories about the Island’s creation and of its colonial history with European whalers kidnapping Indigenous women and holding them captive there. Karta Pintingga is the Kaurna name for Kangaroo Island and it translates to “the Island of the Dead