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Clip description
This is the entire footage with French intertitles. Highlights include a sequence where young Aboriginal men throw their spears at a target, then form a line and begin moving forwards and backwards, and finally charge with spears raised at the camera.
There is footage of men in dugout canoes, a close up of a man’s traditional body scarring, a man and a small group of women paddling rafts to the shore and a family using rafts to cross the water.
The final sequence is of a very tall Aboriginal man scaling a cliff towering over the ocean to reach an eagle’s nest at the top, with two baby chicks inside. The man holds up the chicks to show the camera.
Intertitle translations:
1.01: A native way of making fire.
1.32: With the help of two sticks rubbed together on dry grass, a flame is produced within two minutes.
1.44: A white feather decoration on one of the natives is the equivalent of the Legion of Honour.
2.31: Military service is obligatory. Young men simulate an attack.
4.02: Montgomery Island. Some Indigenous authorities. (The boat is made of hollowed tree trunk.)
5.16: Arbiter of style. (These blistered scars are made by cutting the skin using a rough shell and filling with ashes or spiders’ webs.)
6.06: There are small corners of 'paradise’ even for native Australians. Here, one happy man is surrounded by four young women who could be the Mary Pickford, Bertini, Norma Talmage or Clara Kimbal Young of this place.
6.55: On the coast, at a height of 300 metres, it is not unusual to find eagles’ nests.
Curator’s notes
The scene where a group of young Aboriginal men throw their spears at a target shows the use of drama to create a dynamic scene simulating an attack by a group of warriors.
The intertitles reflect the respect which the French give the Indigenous culture, treating it as equal to their own.
In the sequence where they are demonstrating the use of traditional watercraft, including both hollowed-out log canoes and fan-shaped rafts (commonly known as ‘Bardi rafts’), the Aboriginal people clearly support and enjoy the filmmaking experience as they perform for the camera, enabling Jackson to capture this imagery.
The Aboriginal man scaling the cliff to get to the eagle’s nest shows the physical grace and athleticism of traditional Aboriginal men at the beginning of the 20th century.
