WALKING STICK
1900The wooden stick has a carved snake entwined around the length of the stem, with the head of the snake appearing just below the curved handle.
The head has two eyes and nostrils engraved.
Snake 'skin' is indented all over and the dents are painted brown.
It has a natural finish.
Made from whitegum.
Believed to have been made by Jack Woma, (Womma) (Womman) (Woman), a Ballardong Noongar man who lived in Toodyay all his life.
It is thought he made it a few years before his death in 1904, carving it from white gum with a snake form entwined around the length of the stem.
A Visitor's Book 1877-1888 (compiled by the local police to record who was residing and where in the district during this period) is also held in the museum collection and Jack Woman is recorded as working as a shepherd at Black Swamp, Wongerajan, Duncon's Well & Goomalling.
Details
Details
From text prepared for the stick's exhibition in the Newcastle Gaol Museum in around 2002-2004:from information on an attached label, possibly written by Rica Erickson who was involved with the museum in the early 1960s.
"Jack Womman would have been in his early twenties when the first settlers arrived in Toodyay in 1836.
He had worked for settlers as a shepherd but as an elderly man had little choice but to live on handouts from the white man’s government, on a white man’s property - a property that was probably his traditional home.
Producing items like this was one of the very few ways he would have had of gaining a little independent income.
Such items might also have been exchanged or given as gifts to settlers as this item, a walking stick, was designed for white people. By the turn of the century, settlers were acquiring things like this as souvenirs, much like the tourist trade in similar goods today.
The decorative style is more typical of Desert artefacts, which is a little puzzling as Jack had always lived in Toodyay. Perhaps he was aware of such style through trade. Maybe he catered for the demands of the market and
produced what he knew was attractive to white people.
Whatever the inspiration, this very special object is one small piece of evidence of the change wrought upon one man who was here before white settlement."
Western Australia
Australia
