Australian Artifacts

Exhibit of the Month 3 / 2016

Australian Artifacts

Part of the ethnographic sub-collection of the Most Museum includes several items of Australian or probably Australian origin. If you want to learn more about Australian indigenous culture, visit our exhibition ART OF AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES - To the Last People of the Stone Age. The exhibition can be viewed in the museum's exhibition hall until May 31, 2016.

Throwing Stick – Nulla Nulla – Waddy
The most famous indigenous throwing weapon in Australia is undoubtedly the boomerang, which is not represented in the collections of Most. Its less famous sibling is the throwing stick known as nulla nulla or waddy. It is a stick made of hard wood, significantly wider and pointed at one end. It was used for hunting, and its main purpose was to kill or stun the prey with an accurate throw. In different parts of Australia, waddies vary in shape or decoration. We can also distinguish between male and female variants of this weapon. The waddy often had a ritual role and was also used as a means by which a member of the tribe who violated tribal customary law could be killed.

Spear Thrower – Woomera
The spear thrower has been known to humanity since the Upper Paleolithic. It uses the principle of leverage to achieve higher speed when throwing a spear. In Australia, the spear thrower is still widespread. It is used both for throwing spears and for throwing harpoons.

Harpoon – Fish Fork
The fish fork is a harpoon of typically Australian or Pacific shape. Unlike the classic harpoons with tips and backward hooks used even in Australia, the fish fork developed from the split head of a bamboo pole into three or four pieces. However, in Australia, instead of the non-native bamboo, hard wood with three or four forked tips was used. These could also be equipped with a backward hook made from a stingray spine or a porcupine spine.

Spear
Australian spears vary greatly by region. Generally, Australian indigenous people used various types of spearheads, from stone and bone to tips made of hard wood. Long spears with heads made of pointed hard wood glued to the shaft with wax or resin are characteristic of the northern areas of the Australian continent.