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>