S1.E26 ∙ Lord Campbell of Eskan: Through the Eye of a Needle

Since 2004, Self-Help Credit Union and Self-Help Federal Credit Union have merged with over 20 financial institutions. When these credit unions and banks joined us, they brought their own unique histories. Many were started by groups such as farmworkers, employers, blue-collar workers, people of color and people of faith. They served manufacturing and hospital workers, teachers, African Americans, immigrants and others in low-income or rural communities. Here we are preserving these histories with short documentary videos honoring the legacies we at Self-Help have inherited in recent years. We rely on archival materials and interviews with people who still remember how these institutions started, the struggles their members faced, and successes in helping families build better futures.

Every two weeks a language dies. This means that by the end of this century, half of the world's approximately 7,000 languages may have disappeared.

The Baruya belong to the Anga group of tribes (formerly known as the Kukukuku) of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. About 1500 Baruya people live in a dozen villages and hamlets in the high, rugged Wonenara and Marawaka valleys. They are agriculturalists and are renowned for the salt which they produce and trade throughout the Eastern Highlands. Every two years or so all Baruya gather together in a great display of strength and unity to initiate a new generation of warriors. It is a time of ritual, instruction and ordeal. French anthropologist Maurice Godelier lived with the Baruya for nearly three years. In 1969, with the consent of the Baruya, he invited the Commonwealth Film Unit (now Film Australia) to co-operate with him in filming initiation ceremonies. The first two films in this series give a general introduction to Baruya life. The remaining seven films form a continuum and follow the initiation ceremonies, from the building of the ceremonial house to the final feast.