Family Subsistence in the Hills of Hamar

Streaming video - 2019

Filmmaker Kaira's childhood friend Shawa moved as a young widow with two sons to her present home in search of good land. Here she met Garombe and had four more children. We get close to each family member in scenes of daily life, starting with children milking cows at dawn. After taking grain by donkey to a distant flourmill, Shawa and daughters brew beer, which the sons drink when plowing the field. We learn how Shawa trained oxen to plow, and Garombe explains digging-stick cultivation is a thing of the past. He repairs the fence around his enclosure for plow-oxen and future fields. One son checks his beehive, cattle return home, children milk goats, and Shawa and girls prepare the evening meal. The film is a sequel to former films o...n Hamar directed by Jean Lydall and Kaira Strecker, and contributes to the Guardians of Productive Landscapes series. more