Australian and New Zealander Wood Didgeridoos with Maori Wahaika Club. The longer didgeridoo has animal designs on the side, and the shorter has a tag on it with attribution to the artist and origin. The club has mother of pearl inlays and an informative tag attached indicating the type of wood, 30,000 year old Swamp Kauri. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Size: (longest) 40 x 2 in. 

The didgeridoo (also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument played by vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia at least a thousand years ago, and is now in use around the world although still most strongly associated with Indigenous Australian music. In the Yolŋu languages of the indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land the name for the instrument is the yiḏaki, or mandapul. In the Bininj Kunwok language of West Arnhem Land it is known as mako (pronounced, and sometimes spelt, as mago). A didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical, and can measure anywhere from 1 to 3 meters long. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower its pitch or key. Flared instruments play a higher pitch than unflared instruments of the same length. The name didgeridoo is not of Aboriginal Australian linguistic origin and is considered to be an onomatopoetic word. The earliest occurrences of the word in print is in a 1908 edition of the Hamilton Spectator, and is believed to be a corruption of the Irish phrase “dúdaire dubh” which roughly translates to “native trumpeter.” Traditional didgeridoos are usually made from hardwoods, especially the various eucalyptus species endemic to northern and central Australia, while modern didgeridoos can be made from fiberglass, metal, clay, and more. There is some controversy over the appropriation and use of didgeridoos by non-Aboriginal people, but it is primarily tied to taboos about women playing the instruments rather than any specific race or culture. 

A Wahaika is a type of traditional Māori hand weapon. Wahaika are short club-like weapons usually made of wood or whalebone and are used for thrusting and striking in close-quarter, hand-to-hand fighting. Whalebone wahaika are called wahaika parāoa. Wahaika translates to “mouth of the fish,” in reference to the notch on one side which is used to catch an opponent’s weapon. On the other side just above the handle the concave tip above a carved humanoid figure is the primary striking edge, particularly used against the opponent’s temples, face, and ribs. The rest of the spherical edge is sharp like a blade. Wooden wahaika are often carved with intricate designs. In addition to being a fighting weapon, rangatira would hold wahaika during ceremonies and speeches, especially if they wanted people to pay attention to something important. Special wahaika would only be given to people with considerable ranking in the Māori tribal structure. The resemblance of the wahaika to the Chilean Mapuche people’s clava hand club has been cited as “soft evidence” for Pre-Columbian Polynesia-South America contact.

Commensurate with age.