Eighth Colour

Project status: principal filming complete.

William Willoya is an Inupiaq elder from Alaska. Major Arc was introduced to Willy by Greenpeace founding member Susie Newborn, who named the iconic Rainbow Warrior protest ship after a book of collected prophecies that Willy co-authored.

Willy has had a big life. Now seventy-four, he grew up hunting seal in Nome - Alaska’s furthest north, most remote gold mining town. Willy has led a life of extremes: as a soldier, a businessman, a sacred dancer, a medic chanting for the dying.

Major Arc trustee Emily McDowell travelled with Willy back to Alaska to film in collaboration with US based filmmaker Hans-Martin Liebing. We brought Willy back to Aotearoa New Zealand to find the resting site of the bombed Rainbow Warrior, where, meeting with Newborn and tangata whenua, he found recognition at last.

We are developing the next phase of this longitudinal work around the questions and stories the footage gives us; a portrait of a charismatic and complex man in a changing world.