Australasian parrying shield
 

Hello all, I got this off ebay for the price of a snack and a beer and the seller lived in the same town!Plenty of room for your hand,and varnished with some kind of plant extract.Opinions please Tim

Bargain mate :) nice item i like the patterning on the back.

It looks recent, but still very nice.
The aborigines, like the natives of New Guinea and N. America were stone age cultures prior to western contact, with the Aborigines hunted and headed towards extinction for a decades and decades.
Any with finely incised patterns are probably made since the 1950's on.
Mike

Hello Mike,yes not old ,but has been around.No grime around the handle but I think it is still the real thing.Tim

Tim, the carving isn't distinct enough to make out...are you sure that it's Australian?
I ask only because, over the past few months, I've stumbled across acounts of well over a dozen African tribes that used shields nearly identical to Aboriginal pieces, only with much finer incisions and detailing.
An aboriginal shield with that kind of carving would have probably been by an aboriginal artist in today's sense, made for sale, display or profit, anywhere from the 1930's-40's on, I suspect, much like the popular Igorot shields of the Philippines with the wonderful art work carved on them.
Mike

I think this is South Sudan like in the link. Mine is 110mm longer and 20mm wider but essentially the same thing with decoration. Same light wood possibly same age.

http://southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk/details/1937.34.44/

Explore the weapons here, many types of shield.

hi, wel it is a tourist item.. not a native made peice, looks about correc.t

in sixe and general shape although it is not of the correct wood and .. not realy the correct shape...... and the carving on the front is off.

and the varnish, generaly the natives sold the stuff or were cohersed by missonearys to make these times and sell them to the mission and then these items were sold in misson shops in sydney and melborne. and in england,,
hwoever later after 1976 when this system ended the natives stopped liking to do this so much so the supplie dryed up ,, and so many fak or baldy made items appeared. mostly made in bali,, also in australia, but ot by native or poorly made

this one dosnt loo correct atall, and could be an indonesian made face.
the sheilds in australia vary greatly from one region to another, however they are easy to tell which ethnic group made them,,

generaly the desert ones are for exsample of very hard dark woods,, and much smaller and narrower,,.. and a very deep like a bowl,, as that is what they were also used for,

their main use was to deflect throwing clubs and boomarange..
not spears or such, in north queenslans where contact with melensians was more,, then these were bigger softwood sheilds,, as trees were bigger and the range was better and also they wer eonly used as a sheild and not as a bowl,, on the torres strait islands the papuan sheal is common ,a large square sheild with a arm strap,, the north queensland nates sheilds are still with a integral handle, but ner normaly painted in bright colors..


i do not know if there has ever been a study into the different fighting techniques for variuos parts of australia, but they had rather specilised techniques in various regions and among the different ethnic groups,,
in the central desert it seems ,, untill recently the bomarang style wepaons was king.... and some huge exsamples were produced,, well over a meter in length,, and many many styles were made each with a specific use and technique,,
some are still used today,, and i have wittness somebody being hit with a number "7" in some wife stealing despute or such,, my my ,
(number sever is a & shaped thin sharpe boomarang about 60-80cm in length and very sharp,, designed specificaly for fighting , it si used when the opponent uses the parrying sheild and it will hook around the sheild instead of deflecting from it.. i would presume these evolved form the use of the "trial by bomarang" common in the central desert till recent times.. kind of making shure you got a conviction on the trial :P :O... basical the accused had a parrying sheild and the accuser has a set amount of boomarangs,, and you conduct the affare as a set distance)

hope this is of some interest,,

Neither Australia or NZ
 

Hi Tim,
Not Australasian in my opinion. The carving design is certainly not of the Maori style, and does not look Aboriginal to me either. Perhaps one of our Aussie members can confirm that.
Regards Stuart

i am a new zelanader by birth and spent most of my life in the northen territory , in australia, ive owned many of these and seen many, and seen the black fellas using some of these items still, mostly nullah nullahs , shovel nosed spears and fishing spears.. the use of these sheilds is pretty much dead.. ..

as to the maori as far as i know ,, they never use any form of sheild, or ,, body protection for that matter. due to the fact it was considered cowardly,, also they did not normaly use projectile weaposn during combat,,

due to this most maori wepaons were short agile weapons, used for chopping and thrusting,,

for the seige of fortified villages they sued long ,, 15 -20 foot spears and such,, but not in general ballte,, .. darts and throwing spears were also used. infrequently, but were not considered "brave"

sheilds... were not used.


the paring sheaild is a representation of a australian native sheild,, the wood varnish and type of decoration implys it is for tourist sale and maybe not made natively. but then could be also

I have just seen some tourist stuff today and I now think the shield is indeed tourist rubbish. It is going to happen to all collectors from time to time. :shrug:

Hi Ausjuluis,
very interesting and informative , thanks :)

David

:) not a problem,, .
oh and if anyonemaybe posts the topic of maori wepaons.....
well, the learned the gun and axe very quickly,
i think geunine use of the was dead in the 1880s, and tribal war was over by 1890 ,
now theyer as modern as anyone on the street in london . or other large city.
becuase of this quick change alot of their itmes dissapeared with the introduction of guns , such a the laces and also oddly many musical instrements and traps and types of furnature.
as they soon found steel tools, and guns for hunting and war,,
so actualy many things stopped to be made in the 1800s even.. they adapted rather quickly.,

abborigines in australia didnt as they were quite differenand so in the 1960s and 50s there was still "wild" groups, using stone tools, and not having direct contact with the outside world