A CRUSHING BLOW Nicknamed Kaakutja, meaning “older brother,” this skeleton (near right) of an Aboriginal man rested for some 800 years near a southern Australian river bank before being found in 2014. Scientists determined Kaakutja died from a blow to the head, the fatal fracture which can be seen across his eye socket (above). Near his burial place, paintings adorn the rocks (right) and depict different Aboriginal peoples wielding shields and boomerangs, creating a fuller picture of pre-colonial Australia and its peoples.


THE COMEBACK STICK
THROWN AS A WEAPON, painted or carved as artwork rattled together in religious ceremonies, and wielded on the hunt, the boomerang has become the global symbol of Australian Aboriginal culture. Theword originates from a language spoken in what is today New South Wales, but the original meaning is itself obscure. The weapon’s most fa mousattribute—of returning to the thrower after completing a loop of up to 50 feet—is, in fact, only a qual- ity of the lighter variety. While a hunter typically maimed prey by throwing his boomerang from a distance, it was ity of the lighter variety. While a hunter typically maimed prey by throwing his boomerang from a distance, it was prey by throwing his boomerang from a distance, it was also used in close combat—the fate that perhaps befell Kaakutja, when his assailant’s saber-sharp boomerang navigated around Kaakutja’s shield and struck his skull. 
HUNTING BOOMERANGS FROM DIFFERENT CLANS, CENTRAL AUSTRALIA

AN ABORIGINE WIELDING A BOOMERANG, DEPICTED IN A GERMAN SCIENCE BOOK, CIRCA 1890