Waiting for Harry

In  the film Waiting for Harry, we are taken through the Anbara people's process of a ceremonial funeral for a dead man. The process of this funeral is very ritualistic, similar to some of the rituals we've discussed in our class this semester. This ceremony takes place over many weeks, and includes painting the bones of the dead man and his two deceased children, painting the coffin (which is a hollow log for the bones), making a sand sculpture, and performing many dances and singing many songs. They discussed the painting of two wind spirits who are trading partners, like the peoples themselves and their neighbors, these both were painted on the log coffin. At one point a neighboring tribe visited to inspect the coffin, and decided to add a bit of their own flair to it. At the end of the ceremony, the log coffin is erected and the souls of the deceased join the community of the dead under the sea. The narrator and anthropologist, Les Hiatt, is referred to by the people as a brother. This situation is similar to another documentary made about the making of the film, Ten Canoes, where the director is referred to as 'father' and is involved in the process of making the ten canoes. Back to the Anbara, I found it interesting that even though some people in the tribe live in the cities, some still live in the bush, and this funeral ceremony is a ritualistic tradition that has continued for hundreds of years.

-Holly