Ancient crafts

[James Harvey]

#6577

An old video of a western desert Aborigine using some pretty simple tools to knock up a nice looking product. Thought some of the more primitive minded folks here may appreciate it…

I read an account recently of the end of the last nomads of the western desert. One old couple still lived out there who had never been in direct contact with Europeans and they were sought out by an Aboriginal friend after a long and devastating drought made him think if they weren’t dead, they’d have to be close. They were alive but both died soon after coming into ‘civilization’. It read like a cross between Ishi and dances with wolves. A tragedy. That happened in the 1970’s.

[tailfeather]

#52811

Enjoyed that, Jim. Thanks for posting it. “Primitive minded”….my wife would agree, though she sometimes calls me worse.:shock:

A friend of mine from Tasmania spent the last several years teaching at a school in Derby. Seems to be a pretty wild place…..is that the area the couple you mentioned were from?

[Stephen Graf]

#53169

Very interesting! But I find it hard to believe that the shovel would last longer digging, than it took to make it.

I thought it was going to be some sort of bowl for making food.

[James Harvey]

#53605

Tailfeather, I had to look Derby up 😀 I’ve never been anywhere near the north coast of WA, but I think it is seriously remote! The end of the nomads was a lot more central I think, about a thousand km’s south of Derby, but I’d have to look up the book to be sure. I know WA like the back of a strangers hand 😳

Steve, I read elsewhere that the Wira is also called a Cooloomon, which translates literally to ‘vessel’. Perhaps there was a little lost in translation when the narrator said it is used for digging. The only references I can find to them are as a bowl or plate for carrying/serving food.

[Ptaylor]

#53788

Very interesting video. I also thought it was going to a food dish and when the narrator said digging…:shock:. But, maybe it is used for digging soft sand, and like a snow shovel is better if wide.

[grumpy]

#16469

Really neat, but I hope I never have to make one like that.

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