Aborigines of Arnhem Land, Australia, (ca 1950)

hi welcome to our program i'm ray forrest you know our film stories take us from one end of the world to the other and all around two and some of them actually take us under the sea some of these stories i have photographed myself so that i can tell you about them personally others were photographed by the fine documentary filmmakers throughout the world i'll tell you about our show for today in just a minute this time our adventure will take us to a place called arnhem land in northern australia we will join an expedition who visit with the aborigines of that territory these people live today as they did thousands of years ago it's almost a stone age existence interesting to watch interesting to visit with here we go with our story this is arnhem land puzzle box of the south pacific where life is governed by the ocean it is meal ticket [Music] babysitter and highway to the aborigines of this curious corner of northern australia the bark of the eucalyptus trees is a commodity as stable as steel to americans watch this fine peace become a boat [Music] first it must be well soaked then heat is needed they summon maulin the fire maker as every good boy scout knows friction ignites the powdered wood dust which is tipped into a pad of dry grass and held in the wind steam permeates the wet bark and makes it pliable [Music] as driven stakes give it boat shape split lawyer vine pulls the ends together your shoemaker uses the very same stitch [Music] sap from the jungle trees [ __ ] bow and stern and she's waterborne all in less than five hours from the tree [Music] no queen mary but she'll serve well to search the shores and swamps for bird eggs lily roots and water snakes [Applause] this little saboteur is making waves to sink the toy boat his older brother is [Music] building twisted strands of hibiscus bark make the rigging [Music] basic seamanship is practiced in junior size canoes each spill teaches the kids part of the skill their fathers need in handling one of the large economy size dugout models this crew is on the hunt for one of their favorite dishes [Music] turtle the turtle being a reptile must surface to breathe there he blows [Music] sea turtles can weigh up to 500 pounds food is always equally divided [Music] after dinner a good smoke in arnhem land dad is literally the head of the house he sleeps on the top story well protected from mosquitoes by the smoke of the fire tended by his wives all through the night [Music] a recent expedition backed by the australian government along with the american national geographic society and the smithsonian institution found the pattern of life in arnhem land unchanged from that which greeted the first dutch explorers 300 years ago a paradox in 20th century civilization [Music] of course today explorers are mainly scientists [Music] here the anthropologist is most interested in the people themselves and records their primitive language the botanist collects valuable unknown leaf specimens the ichthyologist or fish expert has to make fast color sketches as soon as the fish are caught as their true colors fade fast [Music] this ornithologist adds some rare new specimens to the 700 species already logged in australia [Music] the children bring in a real find to the zoologist no it's not a porcupine it's the spiny ant eater one of the only two egg-laying mammals in the world his uncle is the playful platypus but right now he's more interested in finding ants than uncles a skyscraper not quite our entomologist or insect expert has found the tall home of a colony of white ants or termites they thrive in the sandstone cliffs of the tableland interior the lagoon lily related to the sacred lotus of japan the lotus bird or yacuna can actually walk on top of its leaves thanks to extremely long toes here is the long-necked freshwater tortoise a 10-foot brown rock python completely harmless the monitor largest of the lizards [Music] the anthropologist by analyzing the characteristics of the aborigines hopes to gain insight into the nature of half-hidden primitive emotions which still influence the behavior of civilized man their urge for art is very strong they paint age-old symbols on sheets of bark and cave walls the color base is the juice of an orchid bulb the colors red yellow and white ochres chewed strips of bark or vine make simple brushes and just as in the ancient art of the cavemen the subject usually includes both the hunted and the hunter [Music] they practice a rare form of x-ray art which shows internal details such as skeleton liver and heart children draw animal tracks to teach themselves the cunning skill of the hunter this is the track of a turtle coming ashore to lay her eggs this lad who has caught and eaten many lizards reproduces a lizard track quickly and perfectly [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] once again in the tradition of cave dweller art the youngster adds to his masterpiece a simple version of the hunter symbol tribal life is rigidly circumscribed by superstition in this ritual the drum is a hollow log called yubara according to legend this log was first used by a great hunter who found out that when beaten with a stick known as the lebate it sounded like the strange call of the emu the australian version of the ostrich from that time onward they have held ceremonies around the drum with only fully initiated men able to attend arnhem land counterpart to rotary club meets every thursday the men paint themselves with the symbols of ancestral beings the water snake the wild honey totem the poisonous yam this is the actual expedition recording which you hear now in the climax the men perform the dance of the big red kangaroo no lady partners so everybody leads only after months of research study and photography can the scientists get back to their laboratories to analyze their discoveries their patient efforts have added another chapter to our knowledge of a strange hidden corner of the world arnhem land