WARLPIRI or WARUMUNGU, Northern Territory, central Australia - Lot 302

WARLPIRI or WARUMUNGU, Northern Territory, central Australian desert. Boomerang with graphic, stylized forms, personifying a bird's head with a beak pointing skyward and extremely clean lines. Linear decorations engraved on one side. Hardwood, old patina and wear marks, remnants of red ochre pigments. Height Height : 84 cm Width : 32 cm Hook boomerangs were used by the Warlpiri and Warumungu of Central Australia. They were used for hunting and close combat, but could also have a ceremonial function. Their manufacture, specific to these peoples, made them objects of prestige and exchange, particularly prized in inter-tribal networks: they circulated in particular towards the Arrernte of the MacDonnell Ranges, who did not produce this type of boomerang themselves. Their stylized shape, sometimes associated with animal figures such as birds, reinforced their identity and symbolic value. The example presented here illustrates the dual practical and spiritual dimensions of these emblematic weapons of the central desert. Bibliography : Philip Jones, Boomerang. Behind an Australian Icon, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, 1996, republished 2004, p. 67 (where a similar example is reproduced, collected in 1929 by Norman Tindale from the Warlpiri/Warumungu).