Learning on ScreenSpear Making: Boys’Spear Fight
- Synopsis
- The object of the series of films was to create a scientific record of the traditional life of Aboriginal people in the Western Desert of Australia. They concentrate on the subsistence technology of the Mandjindjara and the Ngadadjara tribes. The family involved had been living for a short period on a mission station, but returned to the desert at the request of the film crew to make the films.
Minma, the head of one of the Aboriginal families featured in this film, makes a spear from an acacia tree. The shaft is straightened and the point made with a steel axe (steel axes arrived in the desert before actual contact was made with whites). Spears were traditionally used for hunting and fighting. The film also shows two of Minma’s sons playing with two spears. - Series
- People of the Australian Western Desert, Series
- Language
- English
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Film; Film. 16mm. sd. b&w. 10 min.
- Technical information
- Black-and-white / Sound
- Year of production
- 1965
- Availability
- Hire
- Uses
- Undergraduates. Postgraduates.
- Subjects
- Anthropology
- Keywords
- Aboriginal peoples; Australia; families
Credits
- Director
- Ian Dunlop
- Producer
- John Martin-Jones
- Contributor
- Robert Tonkinson
Distribution Formats
- Type
- Film
- Format
- 16mm
Production Company
Sponsor
- Name
Canberra
- Address
- Australia
Distributor
- Name
Royal Anthropological Institute Film & Video Library, c/o Concord Media
- sales@concordvideo.co.uk
- Web
- http://www.concordmedia.org.uk/ External site opens in new window
- Phone
- 01473 726012
- Fax
- 01473 274531
- Address
- Rosehill Centre
22 Hines Road
Ipswich
IP3 9BG
Record Stats
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