Australasian parrying shied

[ausjulius]

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,,