Spinning Hair String, Getting Water from Well, Binding Girl’s Hair

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.
Some of the women’s activities in camp while Monma is out hunting: his two wives spin human hair on an acacia wood spindle. The hair is spun to make personal ornaments such as necklaces, and is also used to make belts on which lizards captures on the hunt can be strung. The children make patterns in the sand; one of them fetches water from the well and then returns to have her hair bound with the hair-string band.
Series: People of the Australian Western Desert, Series
Language: English
Country: Australia
Medium: Film; Film. 16mm. sd. b&w. 12 min.
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of production: 1965
Availability: Hire
Uses: Undergraduates. Postgraduates.
Subjects: Anthropology
Keywords: Aboriginal peoples; Australia; families; social anthropology

Name: Royal Anthropological Institute Film & Video Library, c/o Concord Media
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