Wp/nys/Minang toolmaking

Minang toolmaking is both an ancient and an ongoing tradition, with contemporary Minang such as Larry Blight continuing to create traditional tools and passing these skills onto the younger generations.

Common Tools

Two commonly made tools are the taap (knife) and the kodja or koitj (a stone axe). The taap is made from borryl (quartz) flakes set in line at the top of a boorn (tree, wood, or stick, used here to refer to a wooden handle) and held in place with resin made from the balga (grass tree or Xanthorrhoea) to create a serrated edge. The taap was observed by wadjella explorers such as Isaac Scott Nind as an implement for severing the flesh of animals such as seals. In fact both ends of the taap were used in preparing and animal carcass, “the blade to cut and the pointed wooden end to lever the skin and guts”, according to Minang woman Lynette Knapp. An image of a taap made by the Minang and collected by wadjella explorer Alexander Collie in 1831-33 can be seen here: the blade of the taap above is made with glass, the other with stone flakes.

The kodja is an axe made by attaching a sharpened boya (stone) blade and a blunt boya edge to a boorn handle with balga resin. The kodja was has a history of at least 1,300 years, and was used for both hammering and cutting, such as cutting footholds into trees for accessing beehives and hunting Koomal (possums). An image of a kodja made by Larry Blight can be seen here.

The resin used to construct these tools is made from balga resin crushed into a powder. This is resin is hard, but brittle, so it requires other material to be added to the powder. Kop (charcoal), and droppings from the Yonga (kangaroo). This powder, called Biriny is then coated onto the boorn handle and heated over a karla (fire) to create the glue needed to hold the axe heads of the kodja in place. A video of Larry Blight making balga resin and a kodja can be seen here.

Impact of Colonisation

Colonialism impacted upon Minang toolmaking practices in a number of ways which show how the Minang adapted to changing circumstances. New materials introduced introduced to Minang country were used to make tools, such as glass, which was quickly recognised as a useful material for making blades. The purpose of toolmaking and the function of the tools also changed as well as the materials used. The Minang would trade artefacts such as tools for ships stores, effectively beginning to manufacture objects for the tourist trade. This practice began very shortly after contact was first established, with the earliest recorded instance of the Minang trading tools with Europeans being 1821 during Phillip King’s stay in Kinjarling (Albany, then referred to by Europeans as King George’s Sound).

This practice of producing artifacts for what was effectively an early tourist trade has implications for artifacts currently housed in Australian museums. As European explorers, scientists and colonists were prepared to take any artifact, regardless of its quality, many of the objects they received were made specifically for barter and thus little attention was paid to the quality of these objects, which then went on to become show pieces in Australian museums. The fact that the Europeans were prepared to accept any object with no regard to its quality greatly amused Jack, a young Minang man who acted as Phillip King’s guide in the 1820s and was possibly Mokare, with King recording that Jack: “laughed heartily whenever a bad and carelessly-made spear was offered to us for sale: for the natives, finding we took everything, were not very particular in the form or manufacture of the articles they brought to us.”

Yurlmun: Mokare Mia Boodja – Returning to Mokare’s Home Country

Statue of Mokare

In 2016 a temporary exhibition of 14 Minang artifacts, including tools such as taap and kodja, half of which were gifted by Mokare to his friend Dr Alexander Collie and which had been housed in the British Museum for 180 years was held in the Albany Museum. This exhibition, title Yurlmun: Mokare Mia Boodja (returning to Mokare’s home country) was co-curated by the Albany Heritage Reference Group Aboriginal Corporation (AHRGAC), which was also responsible for caring for the artifacts while they were on country. The arrival of the artefacts was welcomed by Minang elders with a smoking ceremony, and local Minang schoolchildren were involved in engraving their names on a cockatoo sculpture donated by the AHRGAC to honour the exhibition.

Importantly many of the artifacts in the exhibition were made for personal use, rather than for barter, and a great deal of skill went into their creation. In the words of Harley Coyne, a Minang man who helped to start the campaign to return the artifacts and heritage officer for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs: “To look at the resins and the wood that were used in many of these different artifacts how they’ve actually put some of these stone axes together was really quite intricate, and the detailing is really quite exquisite.” As the artifacts were made for purpose unlike many others preserved in museums, they can be used to confirm that the contemporary Minang were taught to make these tools the right way.

While the artifacts were only loaned from the British Museum and were on temporary display, it is hoped that the British Museum will consider a long term loan to allow the artifacts to return to country. Significantly, according to Vernice Gillies, chairperson of the AHRGAC, the exhibition could set a precedent for other Aboriginal communities in Australia: “There are lots and lots of other communities around Australia who are actually watching and waiting to see what happens with our exhibition. If it’s successful… then it will give them the opportunity to do the same thing that we’ve done.”