10 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



SOME EVIDENCES OF PAPUAN CULTURE 

 ON CAPE YORK PENINSULA. 



AS ILLUSTRATED BY SPECIMENS IN THE QUEENSLAND 

 MUSEUM COLLECTIONS. 



By R. Hamlyn-Harris, D.Sc, Etc. (Director). 

 (Plate VI.) 



More writers than one have referred to presumed Papuan culture on Cape 

 York Peninsula, and the list of objects illustrating it is now a formidable one. The 

 Queensland aboriginal was never an inventive genius, and his implements and 

 weapons are remarkably constant, but that he is a born mimic and imitator is 

 very apparent. Hence it is not to be wondered at that he at times, under the 

 influences of foreign infiltration, discarded some of his native implements for 

 those of other peoples, instances of which may be found in the substitution of 

 the primitive few coverings for the luxury of the bark blanket 1 and tappa cloth 

 or the safer outrigger 2 for the original native bark canoes. The point has been 

 raised as to whether there was an infusion of Papuan blood over this area, 3 but 

 this idea does not meet with favour, especially amongst those acquainted with 

 local conditions in the early days. Even as far back as 1802, when Captain 

 Flinders landed in the Peninsula he found the natives anything but the fierce 

 cannibals that the Dutch had led him to believe they were ; " of bow and arrow 

 not the least indication was observed at the Coen River " [or elsewhere]. 4 



In spite of the fact that it is said that the bow has been found in the 

 extreme north, it is only to be regarded as an immigrant from New Guinea, no 

 attempt having ever been made by the natives to manufacture such an article. 

 It is, however, interesting to note that Meston in a letter to me says that he 

 found some small boys on the Pascoe River and at two or three other points of 

 the sea-coast using small bows and arrows merely for amusement," the grown 

 men never taking to this weapon. He further says : ' ' The tribes at Cape York, 



1 Walter E. Roth, North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin 15, paragraph 56, Records 

 of the Australian Museum, 1910. 



- Ibid., Bulletin 14, Transport and Trade. 



3 N. W. Thomas, Natives of Australia, 1906, page 16. 



4 Flinders, Voyage of Terra Australis in H.M.S. ' ' The Investigator, ' ' London, 1814, 

 vol. 2, page 146. 



5 It is extremely interesting to note how soon the boys learn to use their weapons. Quite 

 small youngsters will become adepts at throwing the spear, and their elders give them every 

 encouragement. 



