Filmaker Abdul Razaque Channa is a PhD student in Anthropology at School of Archaeology and Anthropology (CASS) at the Australian National University.

Guddy Guddi Ji Shadi’ (Doll’s Wedding) is a short ethnographic documentary film about a children’s game popular in the rural areas of Pakistan’s Sindh province. It’s widely seen in the region as central to the repertoire of girls’ games.

The rules of the game require the children to replicate the main elements of real-world Sindh matrimonial rites, including complex kinship interactions. The Doll’s Wedding is typically performed in one of the girls’ homes or wherever the players can feel secluded; especially from the disruption and prying eyes of boys. The participants split into two groups representing the bride’s and groom’s sides respectively. Male and female dolls are appropriately costumed by the girls to stand in for the main ritual actors.  The rites are typically played out to much merriment, squabbling, and singing, dancing and feasting and with elaborate displays of gifts between dolls.

This short ethnographic film looks to the life world of children as a way of seeing how cultural forms and values are shared and incorporated through a variety of ritual means, including play.

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