Summary

Game names (and types): 'Goodarchers' (chasing game), 'Ball' (ball game)
Alternative types: running game, play with props/equipment

Handwritten game descriptions of two games played by Aboriginal children near Tennant Creek compiled for Dr Dorothy Howard by Dorothy Easey, a student at Clayfield College, in October 1954. Easey describes the chasing game 'Goodarchers', possibly also known as 'Devils' and 'Gayho (Look out here comes the Devil)'. She writes that the game can be played by any number of players in an open space. A 'devil' is elected and allocated a 'home' base; the other players are also given a base or 'a place of protection' to keep them safe from the 'devil'. The 'devil' chases the other players when they leave their base, taking captured children to his home. Easey also describes the ball game 'Ball', which involves a ball, a length of pinewood, and five or six players divided into two teams. To score, the ball must be hit beyond the opposing team.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's games written to children's Folklorist Dorothy Howard between 1954 and 1955. Dr Howard came to Australia in 1954-55 as an American Fulbright scholar to study Australian children's folklore. She travelled across Australia for 10 months collecting children's playground rhymes, games, play artefacts, etc. This letter, together with the other original fieldwork collected by Dr Howard during this period, is preserved in the Dorothy Howard Collection manuscript files, part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), Archive Series 3. The ACFC is an extensive collection documenting children's folklore and related research.

Physical Description

Handwritten game descriptions in blue ink on lined paper. Text printed on one side only.

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