The First Boomerang by Paul Bryden

Author:Paul Bryden [Bryden, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - Cultural Heritage
ISBN: 9781925706482
Publisher: ETT Imprint
Published: 2021-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

By early afternoon Rob and Clara had researched a considerable amount of the remaining material including a set of historical photographs. Amongst the old black and white and sepia images were studio portraits of Aboriginal people holding boomerangs and nulla nullas. There were also others featuring boomerangs only. The practice of taking such portraits also occurred at Kerry Studio, Sydney circa mid-1880s to 1917, but usually the provenance of the artefacts and names of people in the photos were not provided. And most artefacts were merely props for supposed authenticity. However, the shape and dimensions of boomerangs, and hence their potential to be returners or not could sometimes be estimated with confidence.

Rob was looking for returners similar to the traditional root returner presented to him by the Elder. He carried a photograph of it and believed he could make accurate decisions about boomerangs in the archival photographs. After examining each one, carefully protected in an acid-free sleeve, he found that none compared favourably to his special returner. The old photographs were interesting records, but they would not help him advance his quest, so he moved on.

Rob and Clara were both now reading Tindale’s bound journals of field notes of his South and Central Australian expeditions when they heard a knock on the door. Rob stood up, opened it, and saw Peter Frederickson holding an archive box.

“Hope I’m not interrupting but I wanted to present this personally because it’s unique in the history of Australian archaeology. We regard it as one of the Museum’s premier exhibits. This file will introduce it, but I won’t say anything else in case I spoil your surprise.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Rob uttered eagerly as he accepted the archive box and Peter Frederickson stepped back from the door. “I’ll let you know what we think.”

Rob placed the box on the desk straight away, and then with Clara at his shoulder, carefully opened it.

“WOW, look at this, look at this!” I’ve never heard anything about this before.” Gasped Rob, glancing straight at Clara and shaking his head from side to side in amazement.

Inside the box were colour and black and white photographs of the oldest wooden boomerangs ever found! Rob and Clara’s faces immediately brightened like Venus in the Outback morning sky. Clara was amazed by their incredible age and Rob knew they were a direct link to very old traditional culture. They were looking at an archaeological jackpot, a one in a multi-million discovery.

In terms of the preservation of wooden objects this 1973 find was miraculous. Three complete boomerangs and pieces of others had lain undisturbed in a peat bog in south-eastern South Australia for close to 10,000 years! Their age was impossible to comprehend, but the momentous nature of the discovery was not.

“I never even imagined anything like this.” Clara said with a tone of awe and wonder.

“This is unbelievable! There must be legends from that area.” Rob remarked hopefully, his busy mind instantly wanting to find the ancient stories. “I’ll bet this was big news around the world, it would have to be.

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