Summary

Game name (and type): 'Hip' (chasing game)
Alternative types: ball games, running games, games with found objects, games with sticks, games with props/equipment

Handwritten description of the chasing game 'Hip' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by John Stopher, a student at Double View Government Primary School, on 24 March 1955. Stopher describes 'Hip' as a game requiring fifteen to twenty players, a large outdoor space and a ball or stick. One child assumes the role of 'Hip', the chaser. The ball or stick is thrown for 'Hip' to collect while the other players disperse, running in groups of twos and threes. 'Hip' chases the other players, tagging them with the stick or ball. If captured, Stopher states that a player helps 'Hip' to catch other children by detaining them until 'Hip' can reach them.

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 description in black ink on lined paper. Features borders ruled in red pencil; text printed on one side only.

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