skip to content

Royal Commonwealth Society : Glass spearheads

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>These spearheads were crafted in the early 1930s by members of the indigenous population of Kimberley District from recycled glass bottles and insulators removed from telegraph poles. They continue a three-thousand-year-old tradition of making spearheads. Their distinctive serrated edges were made by ‘pressure flaking’—a technique that 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.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Boxed sets of glass spearheads were widely distributed as gifts by missions and government officials in Western Australia. This set was presented to the Royal Empire Society by Dr Ernest Black, Government Resident, Broome, Western Australia (1931–1934) and a member of the Society (subsequently the Royal Commonwealth Society).</p>


Want to know more?

Under the 'More' menu you can find , and information about sharing this image.

No Contents List Available
No Metadata Available

Share

If you want to share this page with others you can send them a link to this individual page:
Alternatively please share this page on social media

You can also embed the viewer into your own website or blog using the code below: