The skeletal remains of Kaakutja, the first known victim of a boomerang. Michael Westaway
5. One of the most iconic modern symbols of Australia, the boomerang was, in fact, a dangerous weapon used for both hunting and fighting
Although seemingly an innocuous, even toy-like object, the boomerang was created as a dangerous tool for the purpose of inflicting deadly injury. Known for its use in hunting by Aboriginal tribes, as well as by many other ancient peoples including the Navajo Indians of North America, a boomerang was traditionally crafted from wood or bone and, despite the popular modern conception of the item, could be designed in both a returning and non-returning style. Perhaps unique to the Aboriginal people of Australia, the boomerang was also used as a hand-to-hand weapon in addition to serving as an implement for ranged combat or hunting.
Not traditionally considered a weapon by the Aborigines, in 2014 a skeleton later named Kaakutja was discovered in Australia’s Toorale National Park; dated from roughly 1305 CE, aged between 20 and 30 at the time of death, and with a gash across the forehead measuring roughly 15 centimeters determined as the cause of death for Kaakutja, the body has served as vital evidence of the use of boomerangs for combat. After ruling out the possibility of a metal weapon inflicting the injury, researchers identified in Aboriginal ethnohistory the existence of “Wonna”: a fighting boomerang. Extrapolating from this new information, it was calculated that Kaakutja suffered an initial blow to the head from a fighting boomerang, likely destroying his right eye, before a second broke several ribs and a third hacked off part of his collarbone; although of little solace to the deceased, this makes Kaakutja the oldest known victim of the boomerang.