Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Simmons
Thanks for your replies. The club does have a hole for a lanyard so presumably also used to whack an opponent.
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Yeah they are weapons.
Like an every day dort of carry pistol. In the east and south east the club. Waddy, mapangi, nullanulla, as you'd call it among other names was the preferred weapon to carry and both male and female aborigines carried them everywhere in the past.
The aboriginies in the south east had a belt of sorts with a loop to hold it in some regions.
In other regions, especially central Australia the boomerang or boomerang club was carried in the same way or a baton . A short throwing stick sometimes with a chisel on one end and a point to dig on the other...
The non returning central Australian boomerangs can be used as a bladed club easily. They are big and heavy 500-750 grams and sharp.
In the north of central Australia - the top end . The boomerang is not used bug was traded as a status item and used as a clack stick to make music.. for them it was a foreign exotic item.
Up north sword clubs were used more often than the ball headed shorter clubs and so in place of the club or boomerang club. Most natives carried blades hardwood Woomeras. Spear throwers. As the northern top end spear throwers are like long wooden pailing with an edge to it.
You can see footage of natives carrying them always even when they don't hold a spear.
There is soft wood floating types made too but they are not the same..
But these spear throwers you could clobber a small animal ot parry and defend your self if you had to.
The hold in the club's grip you show was probably made by a European long long ago in the past .
It was popular for troopers in the early dag of the colonies to use native "daddies" clubs.. as truncheons . In the museums in Australia there is many examples with lanyards attached.
Some with plates with the owners names. I've seen several with ivord ball pommels and lanyards attached to them.
Probably made it easier to keep hold of on a horse.
The early European authorities were quite qurious about the aboriginies weapons.
At some point making clubs began to die off among the natives,
Boomerangs, digging sticks and spears are still made but clubs are a great rarity.
Being replaced by iron rods or iron stakes.
I think today there is nobody making traditional clubs among the aborigines anymore.