“I am honoured to be a part of this exciting and valuable project,” says Steve Martin, the venerable star of such classic films as The Jerk, LA Story, Roxanne, Bowfinger and the hit TV series Only Murders In The Building. “It presents a little known yet powerful story to a waiting world.” That story is contained within the upcoming Australian feature film Honey Ant Dreamers, which tells the extraordinary story of the birth of the Western Desert Art Movement in Central Australia. Though not at the forefront of his range of comic skills and interests – which includes acting, stand-up and the banjo – Steve Martin is a passionate and longtime collector of Indigenous art, particularly from Australia’s Western Desert region. The actor joined Honey Ant Dreamers as an executive producer in 2022, and has described his role in the project as being a “cheerleader and kibitzer”, though he has been actively engaged in script development.
Also passionately involved in the project is prolific producer Michael Cordell, whose company CZJ has been the driving force behind such seminal Australian TV series as Bondi Rescue, Go Back To Where You Came From and Recruits. “The birth of the Western Desert art movement is a triumphant and universal survival story,” says Cordell, who will also co-direct the film. “No other story I know better celebrates the extraordinary depth, richness and heritage of the world’s longest surviving culture. It is also a conciliation story about black and white Australia coming together. As such, Honey Ant Dreamers is a profoundly optimistic story.”
The film – which will centre on entrepreneur and traditional elder Kaapa Tjampitjinpa in the Western Desert outpost of Papunya – will be co-written and co-directed by Pitjantjara, Luritja and Warlpiri woman and filmmaker, artist and campaigner Anyupa Emily Napangarti Butcher. “This story is both ancient and current…local and global,” says Butcher. “Our art started in the sand, the rocks, the very formation of Australia. Contemporary Western Desert art was pioneered because of the innovative, radical, and entrepreneurial thinking of the Painting Men in Papunya who wanted to keep their culture alive in the era of assimilation. These painters had a vision of maintaining cultural laws while sharing our unique cultures of Papunya to the world.”
Stay tuned for more on Honey Ant Dreamers.
