IDNO

N.36153.ACH2

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.2054.ACH1: “Dance, Hula.” [Typed text]

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; Central Division; Southeast Coast; Vula'a; Hula [British New Guinea]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, 1898 - 1899]

Date

5 - 14 June 1898

Collection Name

Unmounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Glass negative

Primary Documentation

Other Information

The negative was previously stored in an envelope now numbered C101/156/ which was in a wooden box now marked C101/. The envelope (C101/156/) is re-housed in Neg. Env. Box 2. which is stored in storage Box A in the Photo Archive room.

Related Archive: Between Saturday 11th and Tuesday 14th June, Haddon writes in his 1998 journal: “At Hula we saw a little dancing, merely casual dance got up for pleasure and of no ceremonial significance.
The natives have taken a fancy to the Motu, i.e. Port Moresby dances although they are less interesting and energetic than their own. In the Motu dances we witnessed here the men and women stood alternately in two rows facing one another. All those who had drums held them in their left hands, and beat them with their extended right hands, one man rhythmically tapped the inside of his lime gourd with its spatula.” (pp.123)
"Some of the men looked very effective with their little figures and supple limbs of a bright, warm brown – almost copper coloured skin – with shell and bead frontlets and a tall stick of scarlet and orange feathers standing up from their dark bushy hair. Some had nose-skewers, most painted their faces in various manners with black paint, round their necks were bead and shell necklaces sometimes with a pendant boar’s tusk. Armlets and leglets decorated the limbs. The sole article of dress in the usual acceptance of the term is a narrow yellow waist-belt which also passes between the legs. Streamers of a whitish leaf fluttered from various portions if the body. The girls in this instance were not specially decorated at all events in comparison with the men." (p.126) [JD 11/03/2020]

Publication: Image published in 'Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon’s Journals from his Expeditions to the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888–89, 1898–99', Edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp (Sydney University Press), Fig 5.17, and captioned: "Male dancers with their drums. Hula, June 1898. MAA N.36153." [JD 10/03/2020]