It may be a world removed from feuding Montagues and Capulets, but for many indigenous Australians the astonishing tale of Warri and Yatungka surpasses the greatest love story ever told.
Forbidden by tribal elders from marrying, the Aboriginal Romeo and Juliet eloped into the equally unforgiving Outback, where they roamed together for four decades. Living as their ancestors had done, the inseparable couple hunted kangaroos and other animals with spears and boomerangs, wandering between natural water holes up to 100km apart.
Their dramatic reentry into modern civilisation came in the back of a jeep, and they were welcomed like returning heroes by those who had cast them out.
The year was 1977, just a decade after a landmark referendum in which Australians finally recognised their Aboriginal neighbours as citizens.
For the descendants of people who first arrived on the continent 40,000 years ago, today's 40th anniversary of supposed equality has been a long time coming. Sadly, its main purpose will be to highlight the shocking violence, social dysfunction and bad health that continues to afflict indigenous communities.
Many Aborigines yearn for fonder times, looking to the lonely but apparently fulfilling existence of their nomadic forebears, of which the Aboriginal Romeo and Juliet were labelled the last.
'Warri and Yatungka are very positive role models for indigenous people,' says filmmaker Glen Stasiuk, who tells their story in a new documentary.