This film is part of Free
Visit to a Tribe
Short film showing members of the ‘pinto’ aboriginal tribe in Central Australia. Scenes of daily life including preparation for a dance ceremony.
Overview
Short film showing members of the ‘pinto’ aboriginal tribe in Central Australia. Scenes include a pinto warrior making fire by friction between a wooden shield and a woomera (portable receptacle). Craftsman of the pinto tribe making a woomera with a chisel of chipped stone. A pinto warrior hurling a spear by means of the woomera. Pinto warriors in cross-shaped head-dresses made of grass and feathers bound with human hair - festive garb for a corroboree (dance ceremony).
This short film was almost certainly taken during the ‘Mackay Aerial Survey Expedition, Central Australia, May-June 1930’. In 1926 Donald Mackay financed and accompanied the first of several expeditions to Australia's Northern Territory. He later supervised four aerial survey expeditions to Central Australia (1930, 1933, 1935 and 1937). The purpose of the ‘Mackay Aerial Survey Expeditions’ was to carry out survey work, investigate flora and fauna, and observe Aboriginal life (which included the Pinto and Eumo tribes). Donald Mackay (1870–1958) was an Australian cyclist and explorer; he was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society between 1908 and 1931.
