Australian Aboriginal artefacts

Aboriginal peoples used spears for a variety of purposes including hunting, fishing, gathering fruit, fighting, retribution, punishment, in ceremony, as commodities for trade, and as symbolic markers of masculinity.[4][5][6] Spears were historically used by skilful hand-throwing, but with changes in Aboriginal spear technologies during the mid-Holocene, they could be thrown further and with more accuracy with the aid of spear-thrower projectiles.[4][5] Spears could be made from a variety of materials including softwoods, bamboo (Bambusa arnhemica), cane and reed.[4] Projectile points could also be made from many different materials including flaked stone, shell, wood, kangaroo or wallaby bone, lobster claws, stingray spines, fish teeth, and more recently iron, glass and ceramics.[4][5][6][7] These spear points could be bound to the spear using mastics, glues, gum, string, plant fibre and sinews.[4][5][7]

An Aboriginal club, otherwise known as a waddy or nulla-nulla, could be used for a variety of purposes such as for hunting, fishing, digging, for grooving tools, warfare and in ceremonies.[8][9] A fighting club, called a ‘Lil-lil’, could, with a heavy blow, break a leg, rib or skull. Clubs which could create severe trauma were made from extremely hard woods such as acacias including ironwood and mitji.[10] Many clubs were fire hardened and others had sharpened stone quartz attached to the handle with spinifex resin.[8]

Aboriginal man with boomerang, near Yuendumu

The boomerang is recognised by many as a significant cultural symbol of Australia.[11][12] The term 'returning boomerang' is used to distinguish between ordinary boomerangs and the small percentage which, when thrown, will return to its thrower.[13][14] The oldest wooden boomerang artefact known, excavated from the Wyrie Swamp, South Australia in 1973, is estimated to be 9,500 years old.[11]

Boomerangs could be used:

• as hunting or fighting weapons;[15]
• for digging;
• as cutting knives;[16]
• for making fire by friction;[15] and
• as percussion instruments for making music.[17]

Shields were mainly used by Aboriginal warriors to defend themselves in dispute battles, often for commodities such as territory. A shield which had not lost a battle was thought to be inherently powerful and was a prized possession. Shields were made from wood or bark and usually had carved markings or painted designs. They could also be used in ceremonies such as in corroborees.[18]

The Elemong shield is made from bark and is oval in shape. A handle is attached to the back and the shield was often painted with red and white patterns. Arragong and Tawarrang shields were carved of wood often with an outer layer of bark. Tawarrang shields were notably narrow and long and had patterns carved into the sides. This particular category of shield could also be used as a musical instrument when struck with a club, in addition to its use as a weapon.[19][20]

Aboriginal shields from Ian Potter Centre

Shields originating from the North Queensland rainforest region are highly sought after by collectors due to their lavish decorative painting designs. These shields were made from buttress roots of rainforest fig trees (Ficus sp.) They were painted with red, yellow, white and black using natural materials including ochre, clay, charcoal and human blood. Shields from the post-contact period can, in some instances, include the colour blue. A piece of lawyer cane (Calamus australis) would be pushed up the shield owner's nose to cause bleeding. Blood would be put onto the shield, signifying their life being shared with the object. Designs on each shield were original and would represent the owners’ totemic affiliations and their country. This could be done through symbolism, composition and other means of visual representation. On the final day of a young Aboriginal man's initiation ceremony, he is given a blank shield for which he can create his own design. It was believed that the shield harnessed the power and protection of the owners totem and ancestral spirits.[21]

The shield is a form of embodied knowledge that acts as substitute for the human body – a symbol not only of the person in his entirety but also a symbol of his expanded self, that is, his relationships with others. The shield covers the entire body, protects the body, is painted by and with the body (blood) and links the body (through totemic design) to clan..

— John Hayward, "Two rare shield depictions from the Burrungkuy rock art region of Western Arnhem Land, Australia", Australian Archaeology (2020, Aug 17)

Aboriginal canoe making

Dugout canoes were a major development in watercraft technology and were suited for the open sea and in rougher conditions. They could be used for hunting dugongs and sea turtles.[26]

Bark canoes were most commonly made from Eucalypt species including the bark of swamp she-oak Casuarina glauca, Eucalyptus botryoides, stringybark Eucalyptus agglomerata and Eucalyptus acmenoides.[27] Bark could only be successfully extracted at the right time of a wet season in order to limit the damage to the tree's growth and so that it was flexible enough to use. The bark would be cut with axes and peeled from the tree. More than one piece of bark was sometimes used.[25] "Canoe trees" can be distinguished today due to their distinctive scars.[27] The shaping was done by a combination of heating with fire and soaking with water.[25] The ends of the bark canoe would be fastened with plant-fibre string with the bow (front of canoe) fastened to a point.[27] Branches could be used to reinforce joints; and clay, mud or other resin could be used to seal them.[24] Due to the small draft and lightness of bark canoes, they were used in calmer waters such as billabongs, rivers, lakes, estuaries and bays.[26] Aboriginal men would throw spears to catch fish from the canoe, whereas women would use hooks and lines. Bark paddles could be used to propel the canoe[27] and thick leafy branches were held to catch the wind.[26]

The most common teeth ornaments consisted of lower incisors of macropods such as kangaroos or wallabies. One of the most fascinating discoveries was a necklace made from 178 Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) teeth recovered from Lake Nitchie in New South Wales in 1969. Forehead ornaments have also been found to use porpoise and dolphin teeth from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Crocodile teeth were used mainly in Arnhem Land.[40]

Bones were often used for ornamental purposes, especially necklaces and pendants. These were usually worn in association with ritual or age status but could also be worn casually. Bone ornaments found from Boulia in central western Queensland were made from the phalanges of kangaroos and dingoes. Branchiostegal rays of eels from the Tully River were used as pendant units by the Gulngay people. In western Victoria, echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) quills were threaded as necklaces. A pendant made from goose down, shells, a duck beak and the upper beak of a black swan was discovered from the Murray River in South Australia. Talons of eagles were incorporated into ornaments among the Arrernte of Central Australia. Wombat (Vombatus ursinus) claw necklaces are known from Victoria.[40] Painted requiem shark vertebrae necklaces have been found in western Arnhem Land.[41]

The Kopi mourning cap is an item of headware made from clay, worn by mostly womenfolk of some Aboriginal peoples, for up to six months after the death of a loved one. After cutting off their hair, they would weave a net using sinews from emu, place this on their head, and cover it with layers of gypsum, a type of white clay obtained from rivers. They could be heavy (up to 7 kg (15 lb)), and were sometimes worn by men.[42] When the mourning period was over, the Kopi would be placed on the grave of the deceased person.[43]

Other names for the Kopi were widow's cap, korno, mulya, mung-warro, pa-ta, and yúgarda.[43]

"Dolls" could be made from cassia nemophila, with its branches assembled with string and grass. Features were often painted with clay to represent a baby.[46] Dolls made from Xanthorrhoea are called Kamma dolls and are from Keppel Island. Shell dolls could also be made from conical shells and were often wrapped in fabric to distinguish age or status.[47][40]

Rattles could be made out of a variety of different materials which would depend on geographical accessibility. For example, they could be made out of land snail shells, sea snail shells (Haliotis asinina), valves of scallop (Annachlamys flabellata), walnut seeds or olive shells which were strung together with string or hair and were often painted.[46][48][40]

In Arnhem Land, the Gulf region of Queensland and Cape York, children’s bags and baskets were made from fibre twine.[46]

Play spears, which were often blunt wooden spears, were used by boys in mock battles and throwing games.[49]