"The Origin of Discus"
THE STORY
Legend has it the discus originated from the Australian boomerang.
The boomerang was used to hunt many animals for Aboriginal tucker.
Now, way back in Dreamtime, Emu meat was a very favored delicacy between the Warriors and their families.
However the Emu was very fast, and could outrun the boomerang as it moved through the air, therefore it was very rare the boomerang struck the Emu when it was thrown. One of the reasons was, it did not travel straight for a long way, returning to the thrower.
Therefore a faster weapon was needed. After gaining flat worn rounded rocks from the creeks, the Aboriginals tried these to catch the Emu. Sometimes it succeeded, more often it didn’t – therefore a lighter similar shaped weapon that travelled faster and further required creating. This is when they carved out flat round weapons made of hard wood, which they called the discus, after the noise it made brushing through the air fast enough to catch the Emu.
When the warriors were waiting for the Emus to show, rather than waiting around sitting on their behinds or sleeping, they had competitions who could throw the furthest – hence Discus throwing competitions commenced, and has continued throughout the ages to the modern day Olympics.
In this painting can be seen the 2 warriors each holding a discus and ready to compete against each other, and the surrounding creeks and trees from where all the original stone and each wooden discus initiated.
At either side of the painting are the Emus that were very fast and hard to catch.
The circles at the bottom of the painting depict the Aboriginals sitting in circles waiting for the Emus to arrive and their turn to compete in the discus throwing competitions.
In the centre of the painting are the mountains of heavy tropical rain forests where the Emus run to hide from the Warriors – the foliage is so thick many of the discus are lost – seven of these can be seen in the painting scattered through the dense forest.
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