Item X 5320 Nulliga | Spearthrower. Wakaya. Specific locality unrecorded, Desert East, Northern Territory, Australia. pre 1899

Summary

This spearthrower has a very distinctive fringe or tassel of human hair string attached at one end. Nulliga is recorded as the Aboriginal word.

Local Name

Nulliga

Physical Description

A wooden cylindrical spearthrower with a tassel of human hair string attached at the proximal end. A wooden hook or peg is fixed with resin at the distal end.

Significance

This example was amongst a large collection purchased by the museum in 1899 from Frank Gillen, who arrived in central Australia in 1875. Walter Baldwin Spencer recorded that this type of spearthrower was made by Wambaya and Gudangi people, whose country lies east of Elliot in the Northern Territory. They were traded to the south and eastwards to the Gulf of Carpentaria.