Primitive People - Australian Aborigines (1950s)

uh in the swamps and plain and scrub of Aram land in the Northern Territory of Australia live the Mi white people a tribe of about 400 Australian Aborigines these primitive people live in an area stretching from arnam Bay on the arapa sea in the north to Blue Mud Bay in the Gulf of Carpenteria in the South the mewhite people are divided into Clans each of which lives in its own particular territory they consist of the balamu clan the Ringo the Kumite and the wonger Clans there are also other territories common to all poor these are used as meeting places of the Clans here is a part of their land lying along the Sea Coast the dark patches are clumps of mangrove trees and the rivers swarm with alligators these are the weres and no medic food Gathering people always on the move even today they still follow their own old ways of life taking about with them their few weapons tools and Dilly bags which are their only worldly possessions today in the 20th century they are people who are still living in the ways of the Stone Age the aprons these people wear known as diddy diddies at night they settle down to Camp wherever their wanderings have brought them they may stay here for a few days laughing and gossiping hunting and food Gathering until the area is exhausted and then we'll move on their word for Camp is Nina and means sit down they Camp down in family groups wives and daughters clear the ground of stones twigs and prickly grass seeds the men make fire by the Primitive method of friction beara is twirling a stick in a hole in another piece of wood in which he has placed some charcoal when the charcoal is red hot he shakes it into dry bark that has been finally shredded he blows on the charcoal Embers until they catch the bark the Earth is their bed and they sleep in the open without covering in the long dry season they make fires to keep them warm at night in the season of monsoon or rains however they make themselves primitive shelters called boomoo a very simple structure to shelter themselves from The Heavy Rain the main support of the boomoo is a ring of bark cut from the gum Tre the men are using stonee headed axes the bark is bent over and the ends are dug into the ground if it stops raining and the Sun comes out while they are making a boomoo they will promptly stop work and only continue when it starts raining again the structure is then covered with paper Buck to stop the rain from coming through the cracks in the gumb when the man of the family has finished his part of the work he crawls inside out of the rain and leaves his wife to finish off her part of the job at night the natives light Fires at both ends of their boomoo the smoke blows straight through and keeps away the mosquitoes sometimes the smoke is so thick that they sleep with their noses to cracks in the bark to get air these platforms on stilts are sleeping wrecks the native name is lundang the natives light a fire beneath them and sleep in the Smoke which keeps away mosquitoes after a meal they go to their sleeping platforms others sleep close to their little fires in humid weather the smoke keeps away mosquitoes in cold weather they curl up right around their fire and light another at their backs to keep their kidneys warm they sometimes roll onto the fire in their sleep and many Aborigines have scars of fireb burs on their back and abdomen the old and the young dream of good hunting grounds early in the morning in the pikan dawn as they say the tribe awake and prepare to leave for the day's hunting and food Gathering B jaraba leaves camp with his Spear and WRA and a word of advice to his Elder wife presently the women go out collecting grubs roots and wild honey and small animals the men fish with Spears inside the reef the men do the more active forms of food Gathering such as hunting and fishing while the women and children search for such food as can be found lying about on the beach num marari and Wii Wii have seen a turtle Trek and by this they know where she has laid her eggs Turtles eggs have soft leathery shells and are very good to eat the women dig up yam Roots the Aborigines potato others in the swamps are collecting ly Roots they are soft and pulpy and are a native delicacy the Quest for food may go on all day at low tide the women and children search inside the reef for shellfish and crabs the Aborigines eat almost anything they can catch here a family group are coming into camp with a 10t rock python fires are made and the python is heated to take out the stiffness so that it can be rolled up conveniently for cooking the cooking is done by covering ing it with hot ashes from the fire another group have brought in a goena a sort of lizard which tastes rather like lobster this old woman is making dough from ground waraka nuts the dough is then wrapped in paper bark and placed in hot ashes it is baked into a sort of bread carving the joint is done in a primitive but effective way table manners may seem crude but it is not very long ago that the people of Britain were eating with their hands for shellfish are all so popular this is a large mud oyster that the woman is breaking open tibits for the children the baby billybilly is making a hearty of messy meal off Wild Honey this is found inside follow dead trees and the children search for it by listening against the tree trunks for the buzzing of the bees the local bee is small and stingless and is about the size of a house fly the old men of the mewhite people hold Council the business of the tribe is directed by the old men who are leaders and are treated with great respect when they become too old to fend for themselves they take young wives to look after them a young child of the wry Clan has died and the old men are discussing plans for his funeral cobery an Aborigines funeral takes place at two ceremonies one at death and the second a good time later when food Gathering brings the clan that way again the old men are also discussing the second ceremony of an adult who died some time ago the burial ceremony takes place at no special time but is used as an excuse for celebration the men of the tribe make up their bodies with pipe clay for the death cor robbery the morning color among the Aborigines is white the scars on their chests are their initiation marks they approach and leave the funeral ground taking a zigzag course so that the spirit of the Dead will not know which way to follow them and will not frighten the fish and animals when they go hunting the first ceremony is for every initiated member of the clan to Plate the spirit of the dead so that the spirit shall do him no evil their gay is largely bravado in the face of the unknown [Music] some of the natives beat on sticks the long droning pipe is the digy do another chance [Music] all the MERS are painted except the father he wears no makeup since he has presumably treated the child with kindness and need have nothing to fear from its spirit go the body of the infant wrapped in paper bark is lifted onto the platform where it will be left to decompose [Music] a spirit pole is placed in the ground beside the plat the bark around the top of the pole is symbolic of the spirits hair this Spirit pole is to receive the bones of the adult it is painted with the morion of the deceased each man of the tribe has a secret Moran which is given him at initiation it is a secret symbolic map so that when he dies he may find his way to his dream time home where he will dwell until he is reincarnated the children of the tribe are watched for characteristics of the dead and are believed to be their reincarnations this Moran represents the sea ly Roots taste together Waters meaning brackish water where the river meets the sea a sand Bank seaweed and a freshwater turtle the initiated approached the sacred place a symbolic water hole in which the Dead Man's Bones are laid wrapped in paper Bo they dance around the bnes and spear them to frighten away the spirit of the dead man they wish him to leave his familiar haunts and returned to his place in dream time the leading dancer in the group is leak Karin the man who arranges the dances and songs of the tribe as they have no written language theirs is a memory culture remember as many as 2,000 song Cycles songs of their history and legendary the [Music] the biting bag the native H in his mouth has strong magic powers in it is often kept the dried blood of the deceased the bones are smeared with red ochre and placed in the hollow Spirit pole which is afterwards stopped with bark and dried blood e [Applause] [Music] the Bones have now been rendered harmless no spirits will come back to haunt The wery Folk the cabber is over and the Clans are on the move again to there the smoke whisps of their fires can be seen today there they will live and hunt and love laugh as they have for centuries these the first Australians