Weapons and Utensils

Decorated shields from Central Australia and the Northern Territory. The lower shields figured in snake ceremonies in the latter area; the top one represents a fish totem.

The surface of the weapons and wooden containers is invariably covered with longitudinal flutings of various widths, and they are painted all over with red ochre. Their form is always graceful and the decoration simple but quite appropriate. The grip of some boomerangs used in ceremonies is paneled with white dots and black curvilinear lines.

Pigments brighten the patterns on the spatulate clubs, large paddle-shaped bull-roarers, and chanting tubes or Didjeridu (left) of the Kopapinga Tribe, north coast of Arnhem Land. The bull-roarer (third from left) bears a honey-bee totem design.

On the beaked boomerangs three bands of yellow ochre, dotted in black, are drawn on the head end. Concentric circles in white, curved red lines in a field of white dots, or numbers of black or white snakes combined with lizard, goanna, and other creatures, on a red base, appear on ceremonial shields ; longitudinal and transverse white zigzag and chevron lines may cover the surface. In one pattern there is a white concentric circle in the middle of a field of white and reddened feather-down stuck on with human blood. Other striking designs include a central transverse band of reddened feather-down with a bar of white down on each side, and circular patches of red outlined with the white down. On the spear-throwers may be painted black snakes, emu tracks, or human figures, arranged longitudinally and outlined with white spots.