When someone sees a branch growing in a boomerang shape in a suitable tree, such as supplejack or mulga, he might chop off the branch and shape it with an axe and adze into a kayin (curved boomerang) or wartilykirri (hooked 'number seven' boomerang). He might rub it with red ochre or carve grooves into the surface. The grooves increase the boomerang's speed and stability as it travels through the air, in much the same way as the dimples on a golf-ball. Boomerangs can be used for hunting, fighting, fire-making, trading and, in matched pairs, as percussion instruments. Although one of the most well-known symbols of Aboriginal Australia, the returning boomerang was generally only used in south-eastern Australia.
He held the adze in both hands near the end which he was using, with the concave side of the handle facing towards him, the [coolamon] being fixed securely between his knees...He spent hour after hour in laboriously cutting a series of parallel grooves.' Kupija (adzes) are used to work the surface of wood - a strong chopping action removes large chips, while a more delicate scraping or shaving action finishes the surface. Kupija with large blades are used to hollow out coolamons, make spearthrowers, spears and handles for picks and axes. Those with small blades are used to make grooves on tools. Kupija were once made by flaking fine-grained pieces of flint or chert to form blades. The blades were then attached to both ends of a wooden handle, usually with spinifex resin. Today we often make them from old car springs, and use them along with modern woodworking tools such as rasps and sandpaper.
Stone tools like these would have taken several days of skilled labour to produce. With the introduction of metal from the late 1800s, stone tools became increasingly rare. By the early 1900s only a few people with the necessary skills and knowledge were left. First, the craftsmen collcted stone from the quarry, usually black stone (diorite) for an axe and quartsize for a pick. The stone was then carefully chipped to roughly the right shape. Next the surface was levelled by tapping, then ground and polished on a grindstone. To make the handle (or haft) a green branch was split and bent around the blade, and bound firmly with string and spinifex resin. Tools had to be treated with care and resharpened by further grinding or flaking. Stone axes were used for a range or everyday tasks - to chop wood for fires or for making other tools, to chop branches so that honey from native bees could be collected, or for butchering. With their long handles, ngurrulumuru (picks) were used in fighting and executions.
As they travelled, the old people carried everything from bush potatoes to babies in elegant yet durable wooden containers. Large, often boat-shaped containers (wiitin or wulunganti) suspended over the shoulder with hairstring straps were used for carying water - a covering of grass or gum leaves kept the water cool and prevented it from splashing. Long flat purnu were used as cradles, while smaller hardwood ones made excellent scoops (yimpili) for digging up bush potatoes or sandfrogs. Today Warumungu people still make wooden purnu, but with plastic and metal containers readily avaliable most are made as gifts or for tourists. Purnu (also often called 'coolamons') are made from softwoods, such as beantree or stinkwood, or from naturally hollow sections of hardwood. They can be ornamented with carved grooves, red ochre or paintings.
Like and arrow fired from a bow, a spear thrown from a spearthrower travels with more force and accuracy than one thrown by hand. Using a spearthrower, a hunter does not need to run-up before his throw. This allows him to creep as close as 10 or 20 metres from his prey and throw the spear with enough force to ensure a quick kill. Displayed here are three types of spearthrower used by the Warumungu people the thin, flat one (top) is called a wamirri. The other two types, although quite different in shape, are both called jalkkaji. All have a handgrip at one end and a hook at the other. This fits into the base of the spear, enabling it to be launched. Several of the jalkkari have cutting stones in the handles so they can also be used as adzes. They can also be used as firesaws. Before the introduction of matches, firedrills (above) and firesaws were the two main methods used by Warumungu people to make fire.
The old people crafted spears in a variety of types and sizes to suit their intended purpose - short, heavy ones were used for hunting. Some had hardwood heads with shorts barbs lashed on with kangaroo or emu sinew. Others had razor-sharp stone heads. The stone would have been collected locally or traded from the Kimberley or Arhem Land. The shafts were made from the stems of saplings or the branches and suckers of other trees, which were straightened by applying heat and pressure. Finding suitable branches locally could be difficult, and sometimes long, straight lancewood saplings were traded from the north. When the Europeans entered Warumungu country in the late 1800s, spears quickly became popular among European collectors. Large numbers were taken to museums and private collections. Spears are still eagerly sought by tourists.
In 1887 when the young Warumungu man Dick Cubadgee was in Adelaide, he demonstrated the use of a firedrill like the one displayed here. A visiting writer described the event as follows: 'Cubadjee made fire for us with two pieces of wood...by rubbing a piece of wood with holes bored in it against another piece, quickly producing sparks, which easily ignited a piece of paper, and left a certain amount of black powder.' The writer was in fact wrong about the sparks - it was actually the black powder that ignited. This hot black powder is created by twirling one stick into the side of another which lies along the ground. The second stick contains a shallow circular pit with a channel leading from the pit to allow the hot wood powder to spill over onto the tinder. Cubadgee was said to have taken 65 seconds to make fire using such a firedrill.
In the old days human hair and animal fur was spun into two-ply string (ngarrkani) on wooden spindles made from two crossed sticks. String has many uses, from tying blades onto handles to making belts, slings, aprons, headbands and decorations worn when dancing. Feathers, red ochre and kangaroo teeth could be added to these ornaments. Today we make necklaces by threading seeds pierced with hot wires onto lengths of string. Hairstring is still a valuable trade item.
The shields displayed here are all miri, broad shields used in fighting to protect against boomerangs and spears. They are carved from single pieces of softwood such as beantree. Miri are held by handles carved into the wood. Sometimes they are grooved and they may be painted. Shields used to be traded widely across Central Australia - north to the Roper River and south to Birdsville and Oonadatta. They are still valuable trade goods.
