How to make Aboriginal C-Shaped Shell Hooks – by Tom Foley
In this article I will quickly detail the manufacture of the C-shaped shell hook. Hooks of this nature ranged from 13 to 50mm in length. They are an element in one of the first recorded Indigenous Australian fishing methods. The Eora people in coastal New South Wales were viewed fishing off the coast in bark canoes by Captain Cook. The C-shaped hook is one of the hook forms found in use by the indigenous population along the Eastern and Southern coast of Australia. It also shows up in New-Zealand and the surrounding islands. Depending on the geographical location, wood, bone and shells were used. However, today we will be looking at constructing a hook using the Turbo torquatus shell. This was traditionally used by the Eora people of NSW. These techniques can be replicated on any strong shell type such as mussel shells.
“When Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks arrived in Botany Bay in 1770, amongst the scenes they observed were Aboriginal people fishing, from canoes and along the shorelines”
(Banks, 1770 & Cook, 1770)
Fish and other marine life made up the vast majority the of diet of the Eora people. While men fished with pronged bone spears, women would fish with the shell hook and line from their bark canoes.
Archaeological evidence
Many broken and unfinished hook blanks appear in the archaeological record. They have been found mostly in shell middens (large trash heaps of shell waste built over time as a side effect of shellfish harvesting). The shell hooks were used with grooved stone sinkers. Fishing lines were twisted from Kurrajong bark, Gymea Lilly leaf stem, Gymnostachys leaves, unopened Cabbage palm leaves and Sea Hibiscus inner bark. The grooved stone used could be quickly made from soft sandstone. Long-term sinkers were made from harder igneous stones.
Toolkit
Only a few basic tools are required for the construction of theses shell hooks. The most common tool found in association with unfinished shell hooks is a triangular sandstone rasp (pictured below). These rasps are used to abrade the shells and enlarge the hole in the centre of the shell. If you do not wish to make a rasp, a flat piece of sandstone is more than adequate. Along with these rasps, another tool needed is a simple serrated flake of relatively hard stone. Stones such as obsidian will be too brittle for this task. This tool can very simply be constructed by pressure flaking a thin flake. In addition to these tools, a stone drill and a burin (a flake with two ninety-degree edges meeting to make a point) can be very useful in the manufacturing process. Now you have everything you need to get started.
Hook Construction
Step 1:
Take your Turbo torquatus or equivalent shell. Find a curved section that is large enough to cut your oval blank from and sufficiently thick. Take your serrated stone flake and begin to gently score your way around the shell in the desired shape. Once you have sawn most of the way through the shell your blank will pop out. Take care with this step as it is easy to crush your shell if you push too hard too fast.
Step 2:
Once you have your oval blank, grind the concave side (inside of your shell). Ensure that all the edges are flat and even. At this point you are just trying to create a consistent edge. This should go all they way around the inside of your blank.
Step 3:
The outer convex side of the blank is then ground until a hole begins to form. This happens as the centre curve of the shell is ground away leaving the sides of your blank intact. Your sandstone rasp or any flat abrasive stone will work well for this.
Step 4:
Continue to grind and flatten your hook. You only want the inside of your hook to be slightly concave to reflect light and lure in fish. Once you have the desired width, your hole may not be large enough. You must widen it. The Eora people would use the tip of their rasp to grind the hole wider. Alternatively they would use pressure flake the hole wider with a kangaroo bone pressure flaker. Leave the bottom of your hook slightly wider to give it strength.
Step 5:
Now that your blank has been thinned and had the hole made, it is time to make the C shape. To do this, choose the thinnest corner of your blank. Now you must gently grind that corner down until you work away enough material so that you have two tips and your hook is the shape of a C. This is the most delicate part of the process. Do not grind side to side as this can cause snapping. Instead grind back and forth gently.
Step 6:
With your rasp, gently sharpen the tip on your hook and remove any irregularities. Your hook can then be polished using rendered animal fat and charcoal. This will make it reflect more light and therefore more likely to attract fish. Now you have a finished hook!
Attaching the Hook to the Line
Step 1:
First take your line and lay it parallel to your hook with the barb side facing away from the line. Tie a simple overhand knot in the end of your line.
Step 2:
Next take a separate piece of fine plant fibre or sinew. (In this case I am using sea hibiscus inner bark). Lash the hook just under the top curve of the C shape. The knot in the end of your line should be just below the lashing. Finish your lashing with a clove hitch.
Step 3 (Optional):
In many accounts it is mentioned that indigenous women would use grasstree resin to secure their hooks onto their line. However I have found no archaeological or photographic evidence of this. In my experience, the resin is unnecessary although it does further secure your hook and waterproof the binding. I therefore leave it up you, my dear reader, to decide for yourself.
“Toolmakers in Eastern New South Wales utilised grasstree resin to attach hooks to fishing line and spearheads to shafts”
(Threlkeld L.E, 1834)
Conclusion
A few things to note. It can be difficult to bait this style of hook. This style of hook was not actually baited at all. Instead, to attract fish, shellfish were chewed and spat out onto the water. The shiny shell would attract the attention of the unsuspecting fish. This hook is best utilised from a boat with a stone weight attached to the line. It is the exact same way as Eora women have done it for many hundreds of years. Shell hooks are also good for trot lines. Fishing from the bank is often too violent for this hook. It will not survive repeated impact on hard items.
Now you have your very own C-shaped shell fishhook just like the ones that have been used for hundreds of years here in Australia. So go get your bark canoe, grab your hooks and catch yourself a meal.
Reference list
Attenbrow, V. (1970, January 1). Aboriginal fishing in Port Jackson, and the introduction of shell fish-hooks to coastal New South Wales, Australia. Retrieved April 5, 2020, from https://publications.australianmuseum.net.au/aboriginal-fishing-in-port-jackson-and-the-introduction-of-shell-fish-hooks-to-coastal-new-south-wales-australia/
Banks, J., & Lysaght, A. M. (1971). Joseph Banks in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1766: his diary, manuscripts and collections. London: Faber.
Clarke, P. (2012). Australian plants as Aboriginal tools. Sydney: Rosenberg Publishing.
Knight, F. (1968). Captain Cook & the voyage of the Endeavour (1768-1771). Melbourne: Nelson (Australia).
Shellfish hooks. (2019, December 4). Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/cultures/atsi-collection/cultural-objects/shellfish-hooks/Threlkeld, L.E 1834. An Australian grammar; comprehending the principles an natural rules of the language, as spoken by the Aborigines, in the vicinity of Hunter’s River, Lake Macquarie, &c. New South Wales. Stephens & Stokes, Sydney.
About the Author:
Tom Foley is a young, enthusiastic Earth Skills instructor and practitioner, teaching at Australian Survival Instructors school since 2017. He specialises in indigenous skills and Experimental Archaeology. Tom’s mission is to learn dying skills and preserve the ancient ways of indigenous peoples from around the world. Passing them on to the next generation is an important part of this.
Tom is currently a Bachelor of Archaeology student, focusing on skills that have proved fundamental in the evolution and construction of humanity as we know it. This includes running, flintknapping hunting, friction fire, tanning and much more. He has travelled to Israel, the UK and Rarotonga to learn methods of living off the land and Experimental Archaeology. Despite this, Tom has only just begun his journey in preserving the first skills of humanity. He is now planning his next trip to live with the Hadza Bushmen of Tanzania.
With extensive experience in the production and recreation of artefacts, Tom has produced working replicas of stone age tools spanning from his home in Australia all the way to the frigid shores of the Arctic.
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