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Woomera (spear-thrower)

 
Woomera (spear Thrower)

 
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Woomera (spear-thrower)
 
 
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A woomera is an Australian Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands and their descendants. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Australian Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.6% of Australia's population....
 spear
Spear

A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft, such as obsidian, iron or bronze....
-throwing device usually used for larger prey or when there is a greater distance to be overcome. It has been described as "the most efficient spear-throwing device ever". Similar to an atlatl
Atlatl

An atlatl or spear-thrower is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing, and includes a Plain bearing surface which allows the user to temporarily store energy during the throw....
, it enables a spear to travel much further than by arm strength alone.






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Aboriginal Craft
A woomera is an Australian Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands and their descendants. Indigenous Australians are distinguished as either Australian Aborigines or Torres Strait Islanders, who currently together make up about 2.6% of Australia's population....
 spear
Spear

A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a sharpened head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be of another material fastened to the shaft, such as obsidian, iron or bronze....
-throwing device usually used for larger prey or when there is a greater distance to be overcome. It has been described as "the most efficient spear-throwing device ever". Similar to an atlatl
Atlatl

An atlatl or spear-thrower is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing, and includes a Plain bearing surface which allows the user to temporarily store energy during the throw....
, it enables a spear to travel much further than by arm strength alone. It is very much like an extension of the arm, enabling the spear to travel at a greater speed and force than what would normally be attainable unaided. It is still used today in some remote areas of Australia.

Etymology

The name woomera comes from the Eora
Eora

The traditional owners of the inner Sydney City region of Australia are the Cadigal people, one of the peoples who belong to the Eora language group....
 people who were the original inhabitants of the Sydney
Sydney

Sydney is the List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million . It is the List of Australian capital cities of New South Wales, and was the site of the first British Empire colony in Australia....
 area. It has a similar function to the atlatl
Atlatl

An atlatl or spear-thrower is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing, and includes a Plain bearing surface which allows the user to temporarily store energy during the throw....
 but uses different construction methods and materials.

In the Arrernte language the device is called a Amirre.

In the Pintupi language the device is called a Mirru.

Use

As with spears and boomerangs, woomera were traditionally only used by men. Some woomeras, especially those used in the Central and Western Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
n desert
Désert

?D?sert? is ?milie Simon's debut single, released in October 2002. The song was a huge success both critically and commercially in her homeland....
s, were multi-purpose tools. Often shaped like long narrow bowls, they could be used for carrying water-soaked vegetable matter (which could later be sucked for its moisture, but wouldn't spill) as well as small food items such as little lizards or seeds. Many woomeras had a sharp stone cutting edge attached to the end of the handle with black gum from the spinifex
Spinifex

Spinifex may refer to:* Spinifex , a genus of grass which is indigenous to the coastal areas of Australasia and Indonesia.* Spinifex, Triodia , a hummock grass of arid Australia, covering twenty per cent of the Australian continent....
 plant. This sharp tool had many uses – and was commonly used for cutting up game or other food, cutting wood, and so on.

The woomera could be used as a shield for protection against spears and boomerangs. Some boomerangs were deliberately made with a hook at one end designed to catch onto the edge of a woomera or shield, which then caused the boomerang to swivel around and hit the enemy.

The woomera was traditionally decorated with incised or painted designs which gave a good indication of the owner's tribal or clan group, giving one their sense of identity or "being".

External links

  • , from the book Boy Scouts Beyond the Seas: "My World Tour" by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, 1913