Aboriginal Australians manufactured many kinds of tools, weapons, and crafts as part of their traditional culture. Stone implements included axes, knives, chisels, gougers, borers, and scrapers. From wood, they fashioned spears, spear throwers, throwing sticks, clubs, shields, digging sticks, dishes, musical instruments, and a variety of ceremonial objects. Along much of the northern coast people manufactured dugout canoes. Aboriginal people also developed the well-known boomerang, a curved or angular piece of wood used as a throwing weapon and for sport. Boomerangs could be of two types, return or non-return; a properly released return boomerang, if it fails to hit anything, will glide back to the thrower. Many tools served multiple purposes. For example, a boomerang could also function as a digging stick, a club, or, most commonly, when used in pairs, as clap sticks for rhythmic accompaniment to singing. Desert spear throwers had a stone blade attached to the handle to serve as a chisel, and their concave form meant they could also serve as a small dish.
Aboriginal people also made string spun from vegetable fiber, animal fur, and human hair to manufacture rope, string, nets, and net bags. In addition, they used tree bark, reeds, palm leaves, and grasses to make baskets and fish traps. Along the eastern coast of Australia, Aboriginal people made fishhooks from shells. In cooler regions, Aboriginal people stitched animal skins together using bone needles to make cloaks and rugs, which were often scored on the inside to create complex patterns. Traditional Culture of Aboriginal Australians as explained in this article elucidates the Tools, Weapons, and Crafts which they collectively produced for work and defense.
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