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'The Witchdoctor and the Windmill' Brings Linda Syddick Napaltjarri’s Story to NewCinema/Docs+
The life and work of Pintupi artist Linda Syddick Napaltjarri are the subject of The Witchdoctor and the Windmill, a new documentary from Robert Hamilton coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Docs+ showcase.
The 58-minute Australian-French production traces Syddick Napaltjarri's journey from her early life in the remote Pintupi homelands to international recognition as an artist. At the same time, the film uses her paintings and personal history to examine first contact, displacement, family divisions and the collision between Pintupi culture and white Australia.
For Hamilton, the documentary is also the result of a relationship with Syddick Napaltjarri that developed over more than a decade.
A Life Recorded Through Art
Following the death of her father in a revenge spearing, Syddick Napaltjarri eventually came in from the Pintupi homelands and was taught to paint by her adoptive father, artist Shorty Tjungurrayi.
Her insistence that she had Shorty's permission to paint his stories became a source of disagreement within her family and community. The Witchdoctor and the Windmill examines that conflict alongside the wider cultural and historical changes experienced by Pintupi people.
Syddick Napaltjarri's paintings provide an important part of that record. The documentary presents them in relation to her memories of the Pintupi's encounters with white Australia beginning in the 1940s, as well as experiences of losing country, fractured families and the arrival of unfamiliar forces into traditional lands.
The film also considers painting as a way of responding to grief and preserving stories across generations.
Finding Linda
Hamilton's involvement with Syddick Napaltjarri began years before he decided to make the documentary.
An academic whose research included Australian frontier history, First Nations art, representation and reconciliation, Hamilton first encountered one of her works during a visit to Canberra. He became increasingly interested in the artist behind it and says he subsequently spent two years trying to find her.
When the two eventually met in Alice Springs, Hamilton had no filmmaking experience and Syddick Napaltjarri was known for rarely giving interviews.
He told her that he believed her life and the stories behind her paintings needed to be recorded before they disappeared. She agreed to see him again.
That first meeting developed into a decade-long relationship. Hamilton says he visited her nine times, learning some Pintupi and spending time with Syddick Napaltjarri and her husband Russell as she shared memories of childhood, her art and the consequences of achieving international recognition.
Keeping a Promise
Completing the documentary proved difficult. Hamilton says the production encountered family disputes and legal problems that continued for five years, at times leaving him ready to abandon the project.
He continued because he had promised Syddick Napaltjarri that he would finish the film.
With assistance from her granddaughter Lavinia (Wipana) Heffernon Napaltjarri, Hamilton ultimately completed The Witchdoctor and the Windmill in 2026.
The resulting documentary is both a portrait of an individual artist and a record of the historical experiences carried within her work. It looks at how Syddick Napaltjarri negotiated the right to paint inherited stories while becoming recognised by collectors and academics far beyond her own community.
Coming to NewCinema/Docs+
The Witchdoctor and the Windmill will now stream on Whush as part of NewCinema/Docs+, bringing Syddick Napaltjarri's story and paintings to an international audience.
For Hamilton, preserving those stories was the reason for beginning the project. The film documents a life spanning profound changes for the Pintupi while considering how painting can carry personal memory, cultural knowledge and experiences of first contact into the present.
The Witchdoctor and the Windmill (Australia/France, 2026), directed by Robert Hamilton, runs 58 minutes in English and Pintupi with English and French subtitles and will stream on Whush as part of the NewCinema/Docs+ showcase.
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