This film forms part of a "controlled comparison" with
the film The
Hunters. The Desert People and The Hunters are both:
| (a) |
desert dwellers |
| (b) |
people with simple material culture |
| (c) |
"band" societies ("bands" are different from "tribes")
(cf., Political Organization and Leadership)
|
| (d) |
living in small groups with low population density |
| (e) |
with"charismatic" leadership" |
| (f) |
with age-sex based social structure, strongly male dominated |
| (g) |
with marriages through alliances with members of other
bands |
| (h) |
and making group decisions by consensus |
| (i) |
migratory |
But The
Hunters hunt, and, for the most part, The
Desert People do not.
"Desert People is a shortened
version of the film, People of the Australian Western Desert."
This film displays the incidents of the lives of two separate aboriginal
families of the Great Western Desert of Australia. One family belongs
to the Mandjindara tribe occupying a territory near the Clutterbuck
Hills. The other belongs to a northwestern group of the Ngadadjara tribe.
Their territory lies around Tekateka and Jalara, west and southwest
of the Rawlinson Ranges, in Western Australia. They represent the last
families just coming into touch with the Western world."
"This important series is the product of a 1965 film expedition
sponsored by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies into the
'Western desert,' a cultural-linguistic region embracing half a million
square miles and the ancestral home of the nomadic Aborigines. Purpose
of the expedition was to document on film the disappearing Aboriginal
culture and community. The result was some 25,000 feet of black-and-white
film which has been edited into ten films, totalling some three hours'
viewing time. These films record the lives of Djagamara and his family,
who were met in the desert; of Djun, one of the film unit guides who
exhibits sacred boards and leads a tour of the ancestral site; and of
Minma and his family, who were returned from civilization to the desert
to make the film."
"The Aborigines of Australia's Western Desert have almost
all migrated to federal campgrounds, into the cities, or to large cattle
ranches. When this film was made, only a handful held to their traditional
way of life, wandering form water source to water source, gathering
food an the way. Soon the traditions of the Aborigines will probably
disappear altogether, and this film will remain as one of the rare documents
of their past. Two family groups are followed as they go through their
normal activities. Djafamara and his family are camped by an unusually
plentiful water supply, whereas Minma and his family must spend their
day travelling from one well to another gathering food as they go."
Filmmaker: Ian Dunlap
Terms / Concepts
- "bitty" -- dish
- wollybutt grass seed
- spinifex grass
- band societies
- desert ecology
- "ground meats" (are collected, not hunted)
- wild grass is one of the main foods in this area
- digging stick (dibble, coa)
- bandicoot -- insectivorous and herbivorous
marsupials
- Djagamara flakes spear blades from chalcedony
Notes
-
The video starts out describing Djagamara and his family,
then about 1/3 way through the film the coverage switches from
a family belonging to the Mandjindara "band" occupying
a territory near the Clutterbuck Hills to a northwestern group
of the Ngadadjara "band." The latter's territory lies
around Tekatek and Jalara, west and southwest of the Rawlinson
Ranges, in Western Australia. They represent the last families
just coming into touch with the Western world.
- Watch relationships between people
- What do the women do?
- What do the men do?
- What do the children do?
- What do
the teenagers do?
- the relationship of the people to the earth
- their material cultural ( huts, tools . . . )
- their knowledge of the area, the animals, and technology
- what an archaeologist might discover if they came back in a 1000 years to investigate
- what wouldn't they find?
.
- Stones for making tools are obtained from well-known
quarries
in the Western Desert, but old tools can often be found in
the
desert and reused
- Djagamara refashions a piece of chalcedony
.
- note reuse of stone tools
- Watch use of fire
- for cooking
- for light at night
- for warmth at night
- to drive out small animals from the
bushes
- to announce one's presence
- to the trained eye of the desert dweller the smoke
can be seen 30 miles or more away
- sometimes, just for fun
.
- Watch interrelationships with the land
- What do they eat?
- seedcakes, lizards, bandicoot, fruit,
grub worms, mice
- How do they obtain food?
- Who gets it?
- What do they use?
- "bush tobacco" rolled
in ash
.
- Each woman has her own grindstone and her own manner of
grinding
grass seeds for seedcakes
- Some women carry their grindstones
from well to well, but sometimes the grindstones are left at
the
campsites
- Note material culture
- What would be left if you came back
in a thousand years and did an archaeological excavation of their
camps?
- Sometimes a family may have to travel 20 miles or more in
moving from well to well
- It can get to below freezing in the night, even though it
is very hot during the day
"This important series is the product of
a 1965 film expedition
sponsored by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal
Studies into
the 'Western Desert,' a cultural-linguistic region
embracing half
a million square miles and the ancestral home
of the nomadic Aborigines.
The purpose of the the expedition was to document
on film the
disappearing Aboriginal culture and community.
The result was
some 25,000 feet of black-and-white film which has been
edited
into ten films totaling some three hours viewing time. These
films
record the lives of Djagamara and his family,
who were met in
the desert; of Djun, one of the film unit guides
who exhibits
sacred boards and leads a tour of the ancestral site; and
of Minma
and his family, who were returned from civilization
to the desert
to make the film."
"The Aborigines of Australia's Western
Desert have almost
all migrated to federal campgrounds, into the cities, or to
large cattle ranches. When this film was made, only a handful
held to their traditional way of life, wandering form water
source to water source, gathering food on the way. Soon the
traditions of the Aborigines will probably disappear altogether,
and this film will remain as one of the rare documents of their
past. Two family groups are followed as they go through their
normal activities Djagamara and his family are camped by an
unusually plentiful water supply, whereas Minma and his family
must spend their day traveling form one well to another, gathering
food as they go."
Sites
- Great Western Australian Desert
- Gibson Desert
- Badjar in the Clutterbuck Hills
- Digadiga (Tika Tika)
Individuals
- Djagamara
- Minma Djuburula
- Djun
Publications / Bibliography
- Web: Aboriginal Studies WWW Virtual
Library -- Dr. T. Matthew Ciolek.
- Elkin, A. D. 1964. The Australian Aborigines. New York:
Doubleday.
- Gould, R. A. 1968. "Living Archeology: The Ngatatjara of
Western Australia,'" Southwestern Journal of Anthropology.
- Gould, R. A. 1967. "Notes on Hunting, Butchering, and Sharing
of Game Among the Ngatatjara and Their Neighbors in the West Australian
Desert," Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, No.36,
Spring.
- Gould, Richard A. 1969. Yiwara: Foragers of the Australian Desert.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Read this book Online
- Sharp, R. L. 1952. "Steel Axes for Stone-Age Australians." Human Organization 11:17-22.
- Stitson, Roger. Contact: A STUDY GUIDE.
- Strehlow, T. G. H. 1947. Aranda Traditions. Melbourne:
Melbourne University.
- Tindale, N. 1968. Review, American Anthropologist, Vol.
70, No. 2, April 437-438.
Video Review Sheet: Desert People -- University
of South Dakota
|
University of Minnesota Campuses