The title "Ten Canoes" was inspired by a photograph shown to Director Rolf de Heer by Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil. The picture was of group of ten native men in their bark canoes on the Arafura swamp. The photo was taken by anthropologist Dr Donald Thomson who worked in central and north-eastern Arnhem Land seventy years earlier during the mid-1930s.
During shooting in the Northern Territory of Australia's remote Arafura Swamp, the crew required eleven crocodile spotters for safety of the cast and crew
The canoes in the film were made according to original tribal methods, using directions from tribal elders who had not made them for some fifty years.
This will be the first ever major Australian feature film completely filmed in an Indigenous Aboriginal language.
On the morning of Rolf de Heer's departure for the location recce in to Ramingining in the Northern Territory, David Gulpilil came to see him. "We need ten canoes," said David. Rolf looked at him blankly. "We need ten canoes," David repeated. Suddenly Rolf understood that David meant this for the film. "David, we don't even know what the film is really about, how can we need ten canoes?". David looked at Rolf as the ignorant Balanda he was and left, re-appearing half an hour later with a photo, black and white, taken almost seventy years before. Rolf took one look at it and said, "You're right, we need ten canoes".