Yolngu Boy is a film, which explores the friendship of three teenage boys and the multiple choices they face in growing up and dealing with the many responsibilities this brings. Set in North East Arnhem Land Australia, their journey takes them from their hometown with its traditional Yolngu culture influences, to the contemporary city of Darwin. The choices the boys make throughout their journey help determine their identities. Reconciliation of the vast array of influences on the lives of these three adolescents, combined with the integration of Western and Yolngu cultures, is to eventually provide the demise of one of these young boys. His world, filled with fragmented multiple and changing possibilities proves cataclysmic for all involved. .
The search for identity is an experience common to adolescents in all cultures around the world. As the teenager attempts to correlate the multitude of influences on his or her life, such as personal goals, family circumstances, and cultural upbringing, a sense of whom he or she is as a human being is revealed (Gething, 1995, p.322). Yolngu Boy explores the growth of Lorrpu, Milika and Botj as they develop from childhood into adulthood. Dawu, the tribal elder, tells Lorrpu and Milika during tribal council, "You boys have got to remember who you are and what you want". This statement proves integral to the film, with its emphasis on the individual's response to change and responsibility. The alternate points of view each character portrays display the confusion in making a right choice over a wrong one for each character. The film begins and ends with the boys participating in ceremonial rites of passage. In Lorrpu's dream at the start, we see the initiation of the boys into the tribe, during their younger years. At the end of the film, we see Lorrpu and Milika participating in the ceremony marking their transition into manhood. What fills the space in the film between these two scenes is the depiction of the personal rites of passage that the three characters travel through, in order to fulfil the journey which marks their identities.
