Sandbeach  technologies

Portability

Sandbeach technologies come near the bottom of the portability scale, and the top of the specialisation scale, with some nine types of spears.

Energy

Sandbeach people made fire with the tiki fire-drill, kept dry in a decorated bamboo housing. A piece of dry charcoal used to give friction; the glowing dust put into centre of mass of shredded bark and blown or fanned in the wind (Thomson Papers File 196 undated)

tiki firedrill, preferably of Premna acuminata, or Ficus opposita, Grass Tree or Wattle. The male piece is “kalmpa”, the female “yunti”. The male piece was twirled between the palms, maintaining a downward pressure.

The sticks were collected dry, not green, and kept in a housing (“wapi”) of short segments of bamoo, cemented with beeswax, and decorated with red bean (Abrus precatorius) (Thomson  photos 3607-21).

Raw materials

Sandbeach people used a technology of skin and sinew, wood and bark, bone and shell. They used a vast array of animal products, plant products and minerals to make artefacts. The wide variety of timber included:

Acacia rothii used for mallets as well as spear heads (Thomson Papers File 196 undated), house construction, weapons, etc.;

bamboo for spear shafts, fire-stick cases, knives;

“ina”, Sesbania aculeata, for spear handles (Yintjingka, Thomson  photo 3574).

Material for fibres included:

“kaaypa”, Sterculia quadrifida (Stewart River 1928; its use is not altogether clear);

“wutanyu” Hibiscus tiliaceus, used to make dugong hunting rope (Thomson  photos 3544-5);

“matulä”, Careya australis, roots used to make string (at Yintjingka, Thomson  photos 3546-8a-g).

Leaves of Ficus opposita were used as abrasive “sandpaper” (Thomson  photos 3571). Animal sinews were used for binding (Thomson  photo 3579). Shell was used for spear heads, scrapers and knives
            As an adhesive “yonko” gum was traded from Yintjingka and other places to Umpila and Kuuku Ya’u people to the north (Thomson File 196 undated). This may have been gum from the grass-tree (Xanthorrhoea johnsonii), as well as other species.

Manufacturing tools and techniques

Sandbeach people employed a suite of tools (at least nine types of tools recorded) for the manufacture of implements. These were made of wood, stone, bone, shell and bamboo, and included mallets, bone needles for sewing and basket making, shell and bone chisels, shell scrapers and knives, bamboo knives, edge-ground and hafted stone axes and adzes, drills and wallaby-jaw augers.
            Wood-working materials and techniques included the use of axes for cutting, shell for scraping, whittling and hollowing, fire for straightening wood and bark. The leaf of  “komel” served as an abrasive for smoothing (see above). The bark of yikan (Acacia rothii) and “mo’a”, a wattle, were used for grating (Thomson Papers file 196, undated.)
            Donald Thomson’s fieldnotes document a range of tools  (Thomson Papers File 196 undated):

“mokom” needlemade of a sharp wallaby or emu bone for making olko baskets;

bone chisel;

shell scraper, named after shell species (e.g. “yänkämo”) used as knives (“thawura”);

“pokali” knife of split bamboo, for preparation of meat (minya);

conch shell point for hollowing canoes;

axe, “kola”, with a ground-edge stone head;

introduced steel axe, “aimal”, “torri”, “i’o”, “wäko” (Umpila language);

adze, edge-ground stone head, hafted (Thomson  photo 2836);

drill point (stone? bone?) hafted on straight handle (Thomson  photo 3340);

auger/drill of wallaby lower jaw, used to make holes in shell for necklets (Thomson  photos 3040, 3340).

The main Sandbeach manufacturing techniques included conversion of plant material into fibre by masticating etc.; spinning fibre into rope (“mathawara”) and string using a frame (see Thomson  photos 2813-23); twining, looping, binding and knotting techniques for bags and baskets; folding and sewing for containers; various timber and bark construction techniques including lashed poles, and hollowed timber. West (1980) describes Umpila rope making from Hibiscus tiliaceus using Thomson’s data (see also Thomson  photos 3622-4)

Transport

On land, the transport of people was unaided, but Sandbeach people used a variety of containers for moving food and resources, and for carrying infants. On estuaries and coastal waters they used hollowed timber canoes with single and double outriggers. These could carry up to six people, and gave access to coastal waters and resources obtainable by spear and harpoon, including dugong and marine turtles.
            Umpila, Kuuku Ya’u and “Yankanyu” canoes measured about 6 metres (20 feet) long and 35-45cm (14”-18”) deep. They were made of Hibiscus tiliaceus or Canarium australasicum.
The stem of the “antaga” tree served for caulking, cut in lengths and beaten. Lawyer cane was used for sewing splits and patches (Thomson  photos 2861-92; Thomson Papers, File 190 14.10.32, October 1932).

Containers   

The range of containers used by Sandbeach people included twined baskets, knotted bags (e.g. for collecting nonda plums), bark containers (kuta trough), palm-spathe water carriers, and water carriers made from tree-excrescences, bailer shells etc. A closely twined basket (ulku) held water and served as , while a more open-textured dillybag (yakara)  held solids. Women used the string bag for the collection of fruit, for example, and the kuta (kota?) bark trough with folded and sown ends, for the collection and processing of vegetable food. Men called the carved, boat-shaped trough “hollow canoe” (“ma’ano”, “kapa”) (Thomson  photo 3047, 3364-6).

Bags
ulku (“olko”)  dilly bag, closely twined for carrying water, and as a cradle (Thomson  photos 2924-8);

“kuntain” basket, similar use as olko, used by people of Yintjingka;

open texture dilly bag (possible yakara, the generic term for dillybag recorded by Thompson 1988:75);

palm-leaf basket (Thomson  photos 3633-4);

string netbag, used e.g. for gathering nonda plum (Thomson  photos 3004-15) .

Dishes
kuta (kota?) bark trough with folded and sown ends, for collecting and processing vegetable food (Thomson  photo 3047, 3364-6);

palm spathe water carrier (Thorpe 1928 [this is “Water supply of the Aborigines”]);

bark excrescence water carrier (Thorpe 1928);

“ma’ano”, “käpä” to hold food, called “hollow canoe” by men (possibly in Thomson  photo 3086, boat-shaped trough);

baler shell for water, holding fruits, and cooking etc. (Thomson photos 2942-6, 3004-15).

Other
use of bladders for oil (Thomson photos 2893-7).

Shelter and clothing          

House and windbreak construction methods included the use of boughs, and stringybark, paperbark and grass covering. Material used for thatch included mango, a banana-like plant, and punti tree. Shelters were of several types, adapted to various climatic conditions and for protection from mosquitoes. The generic term was  yutha in Kuuku Ya’u (Thompson 1988; Thomson has“kuta”) then each sub-type designated by the main material used for thatch. There seem to have been three main sub-types:

an enclosed dome-shaped house covered in bark (“wägakutanamo” made by people at Yintjingka);

an A-section wet-season house (“ti’i”) of stringybark;

a simple lean-to (“waii”), thatched on one side.

Material used for thatch included mango, a banana-like plant, and punti tree, as well as stringybark and ti-tree (Thomson  photo 3541).
            Sandbeach people wore minimal clothing, confined to pubic coverings for women, ornaments, and a more elaborate apparel for mourning. This included net bags over the head, a mourning cap, mourning string looped around the neck and behind the back, and a fish-net. Mourners painted the face white (Thomson  photos 3133-6, 3138, 3146-8, 3150-3).

Communication       

Sandbeach people in avoidance relations used a particular speech register. People also used hand signs to convey information about game etc.
            Donald Thomson records message sticks including one carried by Tjamindjingu at Rocky River in 1928 (3060). Some are rectangular and flat, with an incised design (photos 3331-3, Yintjingka, 1928). No information is available on the designs or their significance.

Production technologies   

Tools and weapons
Digging sticks and spears certainly had a central place in Sandbeach production, but other tools, weapons, implements and facilities were also important. The wide range of distinct types of spear is notable, compared with the Western Desert.

Extractors
These included the hardwood digging stick (thulu), or kachin, “yam stick”. Thomson (File 196 undated) records names of a variety of other types women’s tools (“yikan”, “tjolo”).
            One of the uses of the edge-ground, hafted stone axe was as an extractor, for example in removing teredo worms from mangrove wood, or extracting bees’ nests from trees, and possums and other small mammals from hollow trees etc. (Thomson 1933:485).

Immobilisers
These included harpoons and spears:

Harpoons
Harpoons with removable head, attached to the shaft by a rope:

Umpila harpoons of Acacia sp., “ta-aba”, or a mangrove (“temo”, “motaga”), or i’ira mangrove, and Thryptome sp., a hickory-like shrub (Thomson Papers file 192 undated, photo 2873);

Thomson notes that old harpoons were used for turtle (Thomson Papers File 196 undated).

Spears
Thomson records more than twelve types of spear (kalka). There were three main categories of spear—single barbed, multiple barbed (ironwood and stingray spines), and knife spears with shell blades, each with several sub-types (Thomson Papers File 196 undated). Some of his terms may be synonyms is more than one dialect. Thompson (1988) lists several Kuuku Ya’u terms for spears of different types (and see Thomson  photos 3054-56a).  The sub-types were as follows:

Stingray spines
kaaya (“kai-yer”)
barbed with stingray spines spear with a light bamboo handle, said to have come from the west coast, traded in return for European gear, and shell for spear-throwers (Thomson  photo 3599b).

Four pronged spears:
thaya (“tai-yer”), “nätä” four-finger spear
four barbs, used for fighting and fishing, Thompson has thaya as used for dugong; ironwood was used for the prongs until wire replaced it;

kanthan yali  (“plenty leg”), kanthan or “tai kulnto”
a subtype of four-pronged spear according to Thomson, but a three-pronged spear according to Thompson (1988);

“kängan tunyu”
small, light, four-pronged spear for fighting and fishing;

“tai-yin”
bamboo handle, for fighting and fishing.

Three-pronged spears
“tjäka”
three-five pronged “wire” spear;

kanthan kulntu or kanthan kukuthi
three-pronged spear. Kantan is “leg” literally.

Fish-spear
kaarika
multi-pronged fishing spear.

Single-barbed spears
tuurki/kilanchi
single barb, long;

thulu
single barb;

“korong’go”
single stingray barb, Port Stewart;

uulpuna “nail spear”.

Knife-spear
praympana, kalka thawura knife-spear
the blade is of kawi’i bailer shell; one photograph by Donald Thomson shows a broad, long blade (3599a).

Other spears
kuyuru
turtle spear;

yikan
long spear;

palnki
medium spear.

Spear thrower
yuli
the hook (kala) was made from “yintjin” wood.

Throwing sticks
kunkamu
a double pointed stick, recorded by Thomson (File 196 undated) as  used as a staff by women for fighting, or throwing stick (Thompson 1988:76).

            As well as bamboo for shafts, an Acacia called yikan (Acacia rothii) was favoured for spears according to Thomson. It was heated, and straightened holding the piece of wood in the teeth. Spears were sometimes decorated with red beeds. Thomson illustrates spear construction in detail. Spear shafts were smeared with the blood of bandicoot or brush-tailed possum; wallaby blood was prohibited. Multi-pronged spears used regularly for fishing were not treated in this way (Thomson Papers Files 196, 256 undated).

Boomerangs
The use of the boomerang is not recorded.

Retrievers
This class included the use of sticks, fish gorges, hooks and lines (Worksnop 1897:95-6), the harpoon and rope, and nets (see below) and containers.

Facilities
No fish-traps or weirs are recorded among northern Sandbeach people. But the hand-net was used: an oval scoop net with a wooden frame, string mesh, used in lagoons and estuaries, varying in size for use by one or more men (Thomson  photos 2970-1, 3483-3509; Rigsby and Chase 1998:203) .

Food processing
Food processing techniques included the use of fire for cooking, of course, but also the pounding, washing and leaching of certain root foods and mangrove pods to remove irritants and toxins.
Thomson describes a wide variety of food-handling equipment including a wooden spatula (“kantu”, “ränkal”) with a long flat blade, used to remove cooked food from the ashes, and also as a weapon (Thomson Papers, File 196 undated); and a flat bone spoon (“mapi”) used for i’ira (mangrove pods), etc. (Thomson Papers, File 196 undated)

Storage

None recorded.

Medical technologies        

For medical purposes a range of plant products and therapeutic measures has been recorded in Thomson’s work, including unpublished papers, as well as “magical” technicques.

Military technologies       

Thomson (Thomson Papers, File 196 undated) records the distinction between a “play fight”, “yinänän” or “camp row”, and a “big fight” (“mukan tainamänä”). The military technology varied accordingly. Many of the spear types recorded under foraging technology were also used for fighting, but some were specialised fighting weapons. Sandbeach people did not, apparently, use shields, clubs or boomerangs (Thomson Papers File 195, undated). Thomson describes the following types of fighting spear:

Unbarbed
ancha
spear for play-fighting (whether children’s play or a camp fight is not clear (Thompson 1988:76);

panti fighting spear
unbarbed, short “bullet” spear, mainly for throwing long-distance;
subtypes depended on the material used for the shaft: “otoi” (bamboo), “tjolo”, yanitha (“yänida”) (Thespesia populnea), or “po-apa” used for camp fights (Thomson Papers, File 196 undated).

Single barb “korong’go”
single stingray barb, Port Stewart.

Four barbs
thaya (“tai-yer”), “nätä” four-finger spear
four barbs, used for fighting and fishing; used for camp fights (Thomson Papers File 196 undated).

Stingray spines
kaaya
Thomson describes the “kai-yer” as barbed with stingray spines spear with a light bamboo handle, said to have come from the west coast, traded in return for European gear, and shell for spear-throwers (see Thomson  photo 3599b).

Men also used a fighting stick (winchi’i).

 
References

Rigsby, B. and A. Chase, 'The Sandbeach people and dugong hunters of eastern Cape York Peninsula: property in land and sea country', in N. Peterson and B. Rigsby eds, Customary Marine Tenure in Australia, University of Sydney, Sydney, 1998, 192-218.

Thomson, D.F., Papers, Museum Victoria, Melbourne.

Thomson, D.F., Photographic collection, Museum Victoria, Melbourne.

Thomson, D.F., -------, ‘The hero cult, initiation and totemism on Cape York’, Journal  of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 63,1933, 453-537.

Thompson, D.A., Lockhart River "Sand Beach" Language: An Outline of Kuuku Ya'u and Umpila, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Darwin, 1988.

(Back: Supplementary Materials)