Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows the responses of Papua New Guinea Highlanders in the 1930s to a gramophone played to them by two Australian brothers, the Leahys. Michael Leahy’s black-and-white photographs and film footage from the time show the Highlanders surrounding and looking at a gramophone. The 1983 filmmakers have edited a 1930s recording of the song ‘Looking on the bright side of life’ into their film. In 1983 one of the Highlanders describes the 1930s experience and says they thought the gramophone was ‘a box full of ghosts’. Subtitles are used.

Educational value points

• This clip illustrates the complexity of the first meeting of Western and Papua New Guinea (PNG) Highlander cultures by presenting the contrasting meanings given to the gramophone by the Highlanders and the Leahy brothers. The Highlanders linked the box and its sounds to their belief system and the spirits of their ancestors, and the footage indicates their caution. Leahy presents it as entertainment, leading a young Highlander woman as if to dance.

• The serious and apparently fearful response of some of the Highlanders to the playing of the gramophone in the 1930s footage is explained in the 1980s interview as being a result of their belief that their dead ancestors were in the box. Men are shown sitting transfixed around the gramophone, but they are reluctant to respond to the Leahy’s instructions to dance and they move away quickly when he moves the gramophone towards them. A child runs to a man for protection.

• The 1983 filmmakers, Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson, have combined the 1930s song ‘Looking on the bright side of life’ with Michael Leahy’s 1930s footage to emphasise the clash of cultures in the 1930s. The simple optimistic words and the lightness of the tune are juxtaposed with the serious responses from the Highlanders, evident in their facial expressions and movements.

• This clip provides firsthand accounts of the interaction between the Leahys and Highlanders in the 1930s from both points of view. The more recent Highlander account explaining their understanding at the time complements the 1930s images. The combination of Michael Leahy’s photographs and film from the 1930s with the 1980s interview asserts the two-sidedness of the contact and the need to provide the Highlanders’ point of view, missing from the 1930s footage.

• The archival footage mainly depicts male Highlanders interacting with the Leahys in the 1930s, but the sequence showing Leahy leading a young woman as if in a Western dance suggests the intrusion of Western gender roles. In traditional PNG Highland society separate gender roles were clearly defined. The women had the major role in producing food from their gardens while the men were involved in business such as negotiations with newcomers.

• The gramophone depicted in this clip is one of the consumer goods introduced into the PNG Highlands in the 1930s in order to impress the Highlanders with the skills and materials of the West and to create the desire for new goods. Traditional society was based on an economy in which villagers were largely self-sufficient, able to grow enough food and to use local materials for building houses and providing for their own needs.