Oodnadatta Shopping

When we lived in the far north of South Australia, there was relatively little tourist traffic and no developed ‘souvenir’ industry. There almost certainly is now!

This old Aboriginal man at Indulkana had made these boomerangs for selling to the occasional tourist, probably intending to sell them alongside the Stuart Highway (which was unsealed in those days).

In traditional Aboriginal society, boomerangs made in this shape were in fact a childs toy. The boomerangs used by the adults were killing sticks and not made to return, but to kill. The man's boomerangs were well made, but the patterns are not at all ‘traditional’: traditional patterns would have been wavy lines and circles. What is traditional is the style of ‘pecking’ out the design with a sharp implement as a series of marks in the timber – which, incidentally, is iron-hard Mulga wood. Yes, I bought them for the very moderate asking price.