Vintage aboriginal australian club.

[kronckew]

hand carved in late 1960's by an aboriginal artist.

very heavy hard dark brown wood. 606 grams, 46 cm. long, 6 cm. at widest part of 'blade', 3.5 cm. at thickest part of 'blade'.

it's actually a bit darker than it appears in the photo.

[VANDOO]

THE DESIGN IS REFERRED TO AS POKER WORK AS A PIECE OF HOT METAL PLACED IN THE FIRE WAS USED TO BURN IN THE DESIGNS. ANY OLD PIECE OF PIPE MAKES A GOOD CIRCLE, HALF MOON OR WIDE BURN AND A BLADE OR ANY POINTY METAL CAN MAKE ALL THE VARIOUS OTHER DESIGNS.
I DON'T RECOGNIZE THE TYPE OF CLUB OR TRIBAL MARKINGS SO CAN'T BE OF MUCH HELP. IT COULD BE A CLUB, DRUMSTICK OR USED FOR SOME OTHER PURPOSE OR A MODERN ARTISTIC RENDERING OF A CLUB? PAPERWORK OFTEN CAME WITH SOUVENIR OBJECTS SOLD IN THE 1960'S TO PRESENT GIVING INFORMATION AND PROVENANCE OF A SORT. UNFORTUNATELY OFTEN THESE PAPERS ARE LOST WHEN THESE ITEMS ARE LATER SOLD.

[kronckew]

bit heavy for a drumstick i think, and feels more clublike in the hand, especially with the oval cross section... it appears similar to another abo club posted here earlier.

the grip area has grooves in the wood like it was carved with a uneven serrated edge, a flint chip? these are mostly smoothed out, especially on the business end. looks like it was sanded. with sand.

sadly, seller got it from someone who got it from someone else...ad nauseum, so any accompanying paperwork is long gone.

the round circular motif with a dot in the middle continues to confound us here, appearing from morocco thru north africa, the middle east, india, SEA and now australia. the carver seems to have left out the dot on quite a few, probably lazy rather than on purpose.

[colin henshaw]

I read somewhere that those semi-circular markings seen on Aboriginal items, represent either native huts or campfires...

[drdavid]

Just a bit of a cultural sensitivity note, the abbreviation abo (as in abo club in the post above) would be regarded as derogatory by many Australians, much like the N word in the US
cheers
david

[ausjulius]

Originally Posted by drdavid

Just a bit of a cultural sensitivity note, the abbreviation abo (as in abo club in the post above) would be regarded as derogatory by many Australians, much like the N word in the US
cheers
david

hello,
a little about aboriginal weapons form australia and other topics...


i lived much of my life in the rural top-end where abos.. blackfellahs (most older tribal peoples concept...theyve just got "whitefellahs, blackfellahs, yellahfellas(mixed race),, and japanaman and chinaman and malays" because thats all they knew,
whitefellah synonumous with australians.. so a american or a german or something didnt really matter,

if they wanted to be sneaky and say something "racist" theyed say balander.. (hollander.. dutch person.. from indonesian) because most australians 99.99 wont know this word.. ....
mostly younger people have a much better idea of different nations through films tv tourists ect but lots of those settlements are very isolated and not really english speaking)

people would be just fine being called abos in a specific context as long as you said it in a nice or friendly manner.... it is just an abbreviation of aboriginal... not an insult.. just like many Australian habits of abbreviating things..
it most definatly not used in any way like "nigger".... youd never use it is formal speaking then it would be clearly rude.. like "Yank" or "pom" or "Frenchy"
.... it all depends on how you are talking and your intent..

there is actually not many racist terms used but the few that are are not at all liked.. .. "coons" "boongs" would be about it.... and these terms they mostly know and dont like one bit.....
unfortunately theyer not uncommon terms...

...really the aboriginal population in australia lives totally apart in more populated areas - the mixed race and white population go to public and private schools and the black fellows go to church run schools almost exclusively aboriginal.. so there is not much interaction in larger towns like darwin.. they just go back to their settlements and end up unemployed having not really interacted with the australian population much.. in a large highschool in darwin maybe 1000 students maybe 1 student with be a blackfellah.... i always found it a rather odd system..

but abo by its self is just rough informal talk, nothing.. rude about it b. but how youd use it..


generally the blackfellahs preferred to be not "aboriginals" or "blackfellahs" but be referred to by what ever ethnic group they belonged to... they appreciated that greatly .

we would not like to be called "europeans" in our own country wed like to be.. australians.. or english or germans or french or swedish or... ect.. as theyer different.. and some look different and really.. not all groups like each other so much... different customs different culture.. and historical .. conflicts..
but australians in general dont consider any of these things..

thats why there is still lots of interethnic fights in the northern territory.. some groups just dont want to live with other groups or mix with them.. but because the australians just think "aborigines" they dont really care about this.. makes lots of problems (most problems.. especially about land..)


about our weapons collecting..

weapons are still made and used in the aboriginal settlements to fight each-other and hunt ,,
as it wont kill you outright .. its not illegal by its self,, and they are familiar with these weapons.. most houses will have a few clubs about the place and if you get into a fight you could grab one...
things like guns are rare and i dont really think theyed use them if they had them....
mostly the fights are inter-clan or inter-family disputes...
so....
you can go to places in the bush and buy clubs and boomerangs that are old and unwanted and theyer happy or swap stuff like a parang or machete or something.

when i was a kid i had a huge collection of spears clubs ect.

the most common used are barbed fishing spears used with a spear thrower..
digging stick/club and the root ball type throwing clubs.
there was still people alive that could flake stone and make ground stone axes and spear heads and knives .. in the mid 1990s... i rememebr i got some newly flaked knife blades for about 5$ each.. i also purchased a long necked turtle in a sack for 20$ when i was a kid it was the biggest one id ever seen almost 50 cm neck..

boomerangs have really declined in popularity, in the desert they are still available and can be found in every house but not really used any more...
in the north they are hard to find and not common..
diggng bowls are still quite common in the desert though.. but stuff like shields are unheard of..

digging sticks are ding out form construction iron diffing bars and crowbars as theyer a good weapon and tool and very cheap..

and bulb headed throwing clubs which are still not infrequent.
. are becoming now more uncommon due to police confiscating native weaponry.. and people not hunting with them any more..

axes , machetes (mostly tamontina brand) butchering knives and barbed fishing spears and on the coast western style harpoons have overtaken native tools/weapons.. unfortunatly..
but.. the spear thrower is still really popular..

there is no place to buy the stuff really but what id id was just ask epople every time i was in a community.. and people will bring you stuff to sell or you can shoot a bunch of kangaroos (which they greatly prefer to other meat) and give them to everyone and theyll be motivate to swap some stuff or give you some stuff if they know you like those type of thins (most australians dont have any interest in aboriginal weaponry at all.. when i was a kid i was the only person i knew and growing up didnt change that.. most collectors are in europe u.s.a. or some .... very few in the bigger southern australian cities.. but not many. maori weapons or malay stuff youd have 10 or 20 times more collectors..)

because of this.. its hard to find people making the stuff.. and its hard work for them to do.. which they mostly dont like :d.. (why should they its hot and time consuming..they dont have many modern tools to do it.....and they cant understand why youd want to pay them to make some sort of club... and they have a little money from government payments so you paying them.. isnt a big motivator. ) so youve got to find poeple who actually like this stuff like you do and not just view it as tools then your i luck.. theyll usually be wildly amused that a "whitefellah" would find their weapons interesting.... generally every settlement will have somebody who would enjoy to make these weapons if somebody was interested....

its sad as this stuff is really very interesting and there is still some old poeple who are really skilled with using throwing clubs and spears.. but there is no motivation to retain these skills.. (just like fire lighting mostly thats forgotten now too.. matches.. ) normally the schools in these communities should have some sort of class each day.. hunting makeing clubs throwing boomerangs ect.. but they dont..

there is actually a huge array of clubs spears ect as each ethnic group woudl have their own styles and there was 100s of ethnic groups.. but mostly these are lost in their function and method of use..
now there is sadly just a few styles being made... in the desert due to isolation generally there is more ethnic specific weapons still made and more people making stuff..

really interesting stuff espectially to see somebody who can really use them.. and use them with great skill.. like hit and kill a running animal with a boomerang at 15 meters! crazy stuff something it would take many years to learn

[Sajen]

Thank you very much for this interesting insights!

Regards,
Detlef

[kronckew]

yes, thanks, i was just referring to an earlier thread title by another member of 'interesting abo club' which i am sure was an abbreviation to shorten the title. it was so typed as to aid in doing a forum search to find it if anyone was interested. other than that i did not use the term but said 'aboriginal' in my other actual posts.

my family is in part 'aboriginal' north americans, or native americans. many creative and pejorative nicknames abound for us too.

any offence was purely unintentional and i apologise.

edited:

p.s. - i had a kangaroo steak (i assume it was a large leg muscle chunk), fried in a little coconut oil & served with some BBQ sauce made with jack daniels. it was great, very lean and tender. have another in the fridge waiting for thursday. very beef-like, but cheaper.