boomerangs used in vanuatu

[ausjulius]

i have read several references that both eskimos and the natives of vanuatu use boomerangs.. ive never seen any example of the eskimo ones in any museums or any pictures.. so if anyone has that would be great..

however when searching vanuatu boomerang one of the first images is one of a boy clutching some wooden items in his hand in the forest and the captions says boy hunting birds with boomerang.. photo is very recent.. but you cant see what the item actually looks like.

has anyone got an example of a native boomerang or a picture of one?

[ausjulius]

her eis an example of boomerangs from vanuatu, these do not return.

[Ian]

Indentured labor from Vanuatu and other southern Pacific islands was a common practice in 19th C Australia, especially in Queensland. Workers would sometimes come seasonally and then return home, others would stay year round. The presence of boomerangs in Vanuatu likely resulted from those who came to Australia to work and then returned to Vanuatu. Northern Australian indigenous groups did trade with seafaring islanders, and it is possible that such trade may have accounted for finding boomerangs in Vanuatu. However, I have recently been looking into the weapons of Vanuatu and can find no mention of boomerangs recorded there by early European visitors.

The examples shown in the picture do not resemble Australian boomerangs very closely, particularly the squared ends, and they do not appear to be carved for good aerodynamic performance. Returning boomerangs have one side flat, the other slightly convex, and the edges are thin. When thrown right-handed, a returning boomerang will soar as well as fly in a circle anti-clockwise. In the hand, it is held with the flat side down and the concave edge forward, and launched overhand at about a 45º angle to get optimum flight.

The examples shown by ausjulius are also called throwing sticks.

[ausjulius]

Originally Posted by Ian

Indentured labor from Vanuatu and other southern Pacific islands was a common practice in 19th C Australia, especially in Queensland. Workers would sometimes come seasonally and then return home, others would stay year round. The presence of boomerangs in Vanuatu likely resulted from those who came to Australia to work and then returned to Vanuatu. Northern Australian indigenous groups did trade with seafaring islanders, and it is possible that such trade may have accounted for finding boomerangs in Vanuatu. However, I have recently been looking into the weapons of Vanuatu and can find no mention of boomerangs recorded there by early European visitors.

The examples shown in the picture do not resemble Australian boomerangs very closely, particularly the squared ends, and they do not appear to be carved for good aerodynamic performance. Returning boomerangs have one side flat, the other slightly convex, and the edges are thin. When thrown right-handed, a returning boomerang will soar as well as fly in a circle anti-clockwise. In the hand, it is held with the flat side down and the concave edge forward, and launched overhand at about a 45º angle to get optimum flight.

The examples shown by ausjulius are also called throwing sticks.

hi, there is nothing to indicate any boomerangs came to Vanuatu from Australia at any point in history, modern or neolithic..

they are native to the islands of Vanuatu, they are non returning and used for hunting.
boomerangs are quite common in many cultures.. india,, parts of mongolia, the arctic.... north and central america.. and even the middle east and europe till the medieval period.
there is also several polynesian throwing wepaons that are similar to the principal of a boomerang but not bent but having an aerodynamic shape.

boomerangs are used by multiple ethnic groups on the islands of vanuatu and are found in the north central portion of the nation on a number of islands there.
they are used to hunt and have probably existed there since ancient times.

i would not call the aerodynamic bladed weapon a throwing stick, a throwing stick is a stick used for throwing that is not areodynamic in its form .
the ancient greeks for example had both the nonreturing boomerang and the throwing stick and had distinct terms for the two items

in Australia in the south and south east both the boomerang- returining and nonreturining, the throw stick and the bladed aerodynamic throwing club all existed in one region.
a throwing stick is a stick typically slightly curved or s shamed with a round or slightly flattened cross-section it has a curved ballistic trajectory. unlike a nonreturing boomerang which will fly far and straight. in australia throwing sticks can have pointed or bulbed ends or can be more like a slightly curved baton.
both throwing sticks returning and nonreturing boomerangs were once quite common among celtic peoples , but vanished over time , probably but the decline of the roman empire. as they did in egypt and mesopotamia too.
celtic boomerangs of the nonreturning type with shod with iron. throwing sticks with iron or lead,
throwing sticks quickly vanish from stoneage cultures whereas boomerangs and aerodynamic bladed clubs seems to persist longer .
i woudl guess throwing sticks were once much more common.
some aboriginal throwing sticks are quite sophisticated with a slight curve and pointed small heads at either end and a central portion to grip the stick to parry with it as a weapon.. while others re just a slightly curved heavy hard stick.

these are not throwing sticks in the image but nonreturing boomerangs.

as to the shape they do indeed resemble some nonreturing boomerangs used in south western australia. robust squared off tips and a thicker wider centre it does help the boomerang survive imapcts into the ground and trees better than a pointed one or one with a narrow centre.

[Tim Simmons]

There are also Native American rabbit sticks very similar to boomerangs

https://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/weapons/ind...-50/index.html

[Ian]

Ausjulius,

Terminology is very important here. If we trace the history of "boomerang" in the English lexicon, it derives from a term used by one of the indigenous groups around the early colony of Port Jackson (Sydney). The native group used this word exclusively for a curved flattened wooden stick that would fly in a circle and return to the thrower. There were other native words used to describe a range of sticks or clubs that did not return when thrown. The terminology of what is a boomerang and what is not has been discussed well by Tony Butz in his online article: What is a Boomerang? An investigation of the word “boomerang” in Aboriginal and English languages. Butz is a former history teacher and linguist, past editor of the Boomerang Bulletin, and the founder of the Boomerang Throwing Association of New South Wales. According to Butz, "if it does not return, it's not a boomerang." He provides early references to illustrate this point.

Misuse of the term boomerang is common, especially among those outside Australia. The use of "non-returning boomerang" to describe a throw-stick makes no sense based on the origin of the word boomerang. First contact Indigenous Australians knew what a boomerang was and gave it a name distinct from other throw-sticks that did not return when thrown. Subsequently, English-speaking groups got it wrong and frequently called a curved throwing stick a boomerang regardless of whether it returned. A mistake that has been propagated widely.

As part of a new project on these pages, I have been collecting and summarizing data on the weapons of people in Australasia and Oceania. This is slow work and I have not put up anything completed so far. As it happens, I am writing a couple of articles that are in preliminary form about the weapons of Vanuatu. One deals with accounts up to the time of Cook's visit in 1774. The other deals with subsequent reports up to the end of the 19th C.

To return to the items discussed in this thread. What has been shown are boomerang-like objects that are said to be non-returning when thrown. These should not be called boomerangs--this is a misnomer. They are throw-sticks. Whether these particular forms of throw-sticks were used in Vanuatu in early times is doubtful. There is no explicit description of such items in the European literature up to about 1900. In fact, I can find no prior mention of this particular style of throw-stick from Vanuatu until this post. A recent web search for other examples was unhelpful.

I believe that the items shown by ausjulius are likely more recent than the 19th C, and are probably influenced by Australian indigenous forms. If my initial response in this thread was too cryptic and lacked context, I hope that this longer version will better explain my view of these items.

It is possible that examples similar to those posted here pre-date 1900 and exist in European collections or museums. Until such evidence emerges, I am skeptical of claims that these are traditional items from Vanuatu.


Regards, Ian

[Ian]

Tim,

Curved throw-sticks like the one you show are widespread around the world. Examples have been found dating to ancient Egypt, including items uncovered in King Tut's tomb. They are old tools in the timeline of human development.

Regards, Ian