This wooden boomerang is painted with the Aboriginal art design of a kangaroo and has traditional patterns too. Boomerangs are often inscribed and/or painted with designs meaningful to their makers. If a group had the kangaroo (or any other animal) as their totem, or spirit form animal, they would not hunt and eat it.

There are two types of boomerang – returning and non-returning. The example shown is a returning boomerang; a throwing stick that travels in an elliptical path and returns to its point of origin when thrown correctly. A returning boomerang has two or more wings arranged so that the spinning creates unbalanced forces that curve its path. They can travel distances up to 200m.

For 40,000 years, Aboriginal Australians, the indigenous people of Australia, collected food and hunted to survive. They lived in harmony with the environment, using only what was needed. They invented a number of devices that made hunting easier, to make sure the energy gained from eating the food is greater than the energy used in hunting for it.

Credited with inventing the returning boomerang, Aboriginal groups used this ingenious tool for hunting, in warfare and in religious ceremonies.