Shield of time

A 150-year-old aboriginal artefact was unveiled at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide recently. The Wokali bark shield belonged to the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains and dates

back to the early 1850s. It was used in tribal fights. The Museum's head of anthropology, Phillip Clarke, says the shield was bought from a private collector for us $200,000. "We never

thought such a shield would come up for sale and there would be very few in any collection. There probably were a few collected by English colonists back in the early 19th century but being

made of bark, it becomes brittle and can be easily smashed up," he told the media.