In the 1880s La Perouse became a regular camp site for displaced South Coast Aborigines. Some of these people had been expelled from the city of Sydney to the north, others had travelled north from traditional lands alienated by farming and grazing. Initially their occupation of this northern headland of Botany Bay was deemed illegal. But their camp was officially recognised as an Aboriginal Reserve in 1895. The establishment of a nearby Methodist Mission - soon to become the headquarters for the United Aborigines Mission - may well have influenced this decision.
Although La Perouse at this time was still beyond the southern perimeter of suburban development, it was already a popular seaside resort for the white inhabitants of Sydney. The Joseph Banks Hotel, with its renowned pleasure gardens and menagerie, was built there in the 1830s. By the 1880s the establishment was reaching its peak of popularity.
With few other means of income and provision, the Aborigines of La Perouse were quick to engage with this tourist market. They sold shell artefacts, boomerangs and demonstrated boomerang throwing to the day trippers. What developed was a 'transitional culture' of production with traditional skills being employed to create 'non-traditional' artefacts for the new market. The production of shell souvenirs and decorated boomerangs grew in the 20th century with the establishment of a tram line to La Perouse in 1902.
This boomerang is typical of many that were made in the community in the 1920s and 1930s. It is made of mangrove wood and features a poker-worked design with a wattle sprig and geometric pattern at each end, and a central motif of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and water coloured with a green pigment. The wood was probably obtained from the foreshore of Botany Bay and the poker-work performed with a piece of hot wire.
The reverse side of the boomerang bears a dedication inscribed in lead pencil: 'To Jim Kenney (1928)/ FRM. Tommie Foster/ La Perouse'.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge was an icon as soon as it was completed. It was used on at least one other La Perouse boomerang and was a common motif on many non-Indigenous souvenirs and designs. Of particular interest here, however, is the date 1928 - four years before the opening the Bridge. Possibly this suggests the maker was influenced by early drawings or plans of the Bridge. Alternatively the date may reflect the death of the subject of the dedication, Jim Kenney.
The artist and manufacturer, Tommie Forster of La Perouse, has dedicated and signed the back of the boomerang. The date given in the inscription (1928) predates the completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932), hence the design must have been adapted from bridge design drawings that were widely published in newspapers in 1928.
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