Gurindji Elders in the Northern Territory task a Japanese man with sharing their history with the wider world.
2025 | G | 99 mins | D: Andrew Pike and Ann McGrath
English and Japanese with English subtitle
Japarta tells the true story of Japanese scholar Minoru Hokari. His brief life left a legacy of cross‑cultural understanding inspired by the Wave Hill walk‑off of 1966. Hokari travelled from Japan to learn directly from Gurindji Elders, who tasked him with sharing their history on their own terms.
Given the skin name Japarta, Hokari lived on Country, recording Gurindji ways of knowing history as something lived, sensed and felt. Before his death in 2004 aged just 32, Hokari completed a PhD at the Australian National University and wrote Gurindji Journey: A Japanese Historian in the Outback.
The film interweaves Gurindji memories with those of Hokari’s family and colleagues, reflecting on a life shaped by Country, listening and respect.