Auckland Party To Search For Head-Hunting Pygmies

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28013, 6 July 1956, Page 10

Auckland Party To Search For Head-Hunting Pygmies

“The Press” Spec al Service

AUCKLAND. July 5. A party of Auckland residents will look for head-hunting pygmies in the remote interior of Venezuela year. The party wishes to study the culture, customs, and religions of jungle-dwelling Indians in Venezuela, Brazil. Peru, and British Guiana.

The leaders of the party will be Mr F. W. Bradley, aged 24. an anthropology student at Auckland University College, and Mr Douglas Riley, aged 31, a science graduate of Liverpool University, who before coming to New Zealand served as a major in the British Army during the Mau Mau trouble in Kenya. They will be accompanied by Miss Pam Hillyer. aged 24. a graduate of Queensland University, and Messrs I. Lack, aged 20. K. Blackburn, aged 30. A. Gordon, aged 26. R. Foley, aged 21. C. Ritchie, aged 24. and A. W. Wilcox. aged 25. Miss Hillyer and Messrs Lack and Blackburn will be the expedition's photographers. Messrs Gordon and Foley will do the cooking and general duties, and the navigator will be Mr Wilcox, who has had considerable jungle experience in Africa. The expedition will leave in Deccm- • ber and January. Each member will contribute £5OO towards the cost of the trip, which is unsponsored. All equipment will be New Zealand made. Beads and other trinkets will be carried as gifts to the natives, and most of the party's food will be dehydrated Dr. Leonard Bennett, an Englishman living in Auckland, is adviser to the expedition. He knows Venezuela well Mr Bradley said to-night that the expedition hoped to find a new route through the Venezuelan jungle to Manaos, in Brazil. “Ninety per cent, of the areas we will visit." he said, “have never been explored.’’ The party will call itself the New ; Zealand Amazon Expedition of 1957. I 1 and will seek registration as a company.