Australian Aborigines: The Boomerang and Didgeridoo

This week the children learnt all about the Australian Aboriginal Boomerang and Didgeridoo.  First, they researched the boomerang and Thomas made one.  Next, the little ones played with an authentic didgeridoo.  And finally, we all tried our hands at playing it.  We were not very good.  But we did have a lot of fun trying!

Researching the Australian Aboriginal Boomerang and Didgeridoo

• Boomerang

Did you know that a boomerang was a hunting implement rather than just an aboriginal curiosity?  I didn’t!  We learnt all about the Australian Boomerang from this website.  This has multiple articles to read.  Interestingly, the hunting boomerang was used instead of a spear, and was effective within a range of 200 meters.  T13 made a home-made boomerang using card board and white gaffa tape:

And tested it outside:

It worked, but we did not have enough room to see if it would fully return.  However, I do think it might have worked if we had gone to the park:

• Didgeridoo

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument.  It is otherwise known as a natural wooden trumpet. An instrument of ancient times, it is thought to be over 1500 years old. The following video is fascinating.  Oh my goodness!  Hilarious is an understatement, when we all took a turn attempting to play it.  Unfortunately, it did not sound anything like it did in the video. It was so hilarious, in fact, that I didn’t seem to have taken any photos of the actual practicing:

We already owned a didgeridoo which we found at a charity shop a few years ago. The little ones, not having a clue what it was, enjoyed hours of ‘play’ with it:

And when they got dressed up, the didgeridoo was very much part of the whole ensemble:

So much fun!

If you are studying this for yourself, do take a look at the following posts:

1) Australian Aboriginal Resources

2) Australian Aboriginal Cave Art

3) Australian Aboriginal Dress-Up

4) Australian Aboriginal Dot Art

And for lots more ideas for a unit study of the Australian Aboriginals have a look at my Pinterest board and follow along: