Painted souvenir Aboriginal woomera : Alice Springs, 1942

Woomera, carved from bean wood. The front is decorated in oil paint with a bush scene depicting an Aboriginal man carrying a dead kangaroo, a kangaroo and emu under a eucalypt and finished with floral decorations. The handle bulb at the end of the woomera is covered in spinifex resin. The back is decorated with a design which includes a foot, and is signed at the top 'PW 1942'.

Painted and carved beanwood souvenir artifact sold by Indigenous craftsmen in Alice Springs in 1942. This artifact and the two accompanying it (see REL36106 and REL36107) were purchased by a group of Australian nurses travelling to or from Darwin in 1942. There was a huge movement of people - servicemen and women as well as residents evacuated from Australia's northern towns and cities passing through Alice Springs during this period. There is evidence of resident and displaced Indigenous individuals and groups selling painted or carved artifacts to travellers along this route, as well as along the main east-west route via the Nullarbor.