ORCS.8.02

These beautiful spearheads were crafted in the early 1930s by the indigenous population of Kimberley District, Western Australia. They are made from recycled glass bottles and insulators removed from telegraph poles and continue a three thousand year-old tradition of making spearheads.

Their distinctive serrated edges were made by ‘pressure flaking’—a technique which involves applying a pointed stick or a shaped piece of animal bone at a very slight oblique angle to the flat of the blade, at evenly spaced points along the edge, and then repeating the process on the other side.

Boxed sets of glass spearheads were widely distributed and gifted by missions and government officials in Western Australia. This set, which shows no sign of having been used in hunting, was presented to the Royal Empire Society by Dr Ernest Black, Government Resident, Broome, Western Australia (1931-1934). Black was a member of the Society.