Dr. Michael Westaway, a pa-      revealed he had been killed in   Kaakutja's adversary to whip      intertribal conflict." One such 
leoanthropologist at Griffith    the 13th century—hundreds        around his shield and smash       proof is a series of rock paint- 
University in Queensland.        of years before Europeans ar-    into his head.                    ings near where Kaakutja was 
"He was obviously someone        rived in Australia and intro-       Although study of inter-       found, depicting two tribes 
that a lot of people cared for," duced metal objects. What,       tribal violence in pre-contact    painted in different colors 
Westaway comments, not-          then, had killed Kaakutja in     Australia is still largely based  wieldin.gboomerangs, shields, 
ing that in the burial, his head the prime of his life?           on accounts rather than ar-       and clubs.
had been tenderly placed on a       Westaway, who co -            chaeological evidence, Kaa-         Throughout the investiga- 
cushion of sand.                 authored a report on Kaakutja    kutja's death does have a prec-   tion into what befell Kaakut- 
  At first glance, Westaway      for the journalAntiquity, was    e dent. Just under a decade ago,  ja, William Bates's Baakantji 
reasoned that Kaakutja's le-     intrigued by the cause of the    a skel eton was unearthed near    community played a direct 
thal injury, a long wound on     fatal injury. One theory cen-    Sydney. It belonged to a man      role in the excavation, con- 
his skull, had come from a       tered on the MAP, a sharp-       wholived 4,000 years ago, be-     tributing to the emerging 
cutlass blade, most likely dealt ened club. On balance, how-      I ieved to have been killed with  picture of Aboriginal culture. 
by the British militia. It turns ever, Westaway has singled       stone-tipped spears.              "If it was not for their inter- 
out that the t ime of death was  out the most iconic Aborig-         "I don't know if it was a      est in their heritage, an d their 
earlier—much, much earlier.      inal symbol: the boomerang,      continent-wide phenome-           support of theNational Parks 
When the remains were sub-       a weapon with a long, sur-       non," says Westaway. "But we      ServiceWestaway notes,"an 
mitted for lab tests, thepicture prisingly sharp edge. Per-       do see evidence in this part of   important part of their past 
radically changed. Analysis      haps it had been wielded by      [Australia] that .. supports      would. have been lost".

