Maori Short Club, New Zealand

This short club is a patu paraoa, patu being the general term for club, and paraoa being Maori for sperm whale, whalebone, or a weapon made of the same. All varieties of patu are designed to deliver a one-handed jabbing stroke aimed at the lower edge of the ribs, the lower jaw, or the temple, the blow being struck with the distal end of the club. Whalebone clubs were notable for their strength, as Elsdon Best remarks: "patu paraoa, or patu made from the bones of the sperm whale, were much prized, and were strong, handy weapons, not liable to fracture." (Best, "Notes on the Art of War, as Conducted by the Maori of New Zealand", Journal of the Polynesian Society, March 1902, Vol. 11, No. 1, p. 235).

Barbara Todd notes that the use of whalebone "gave nobility to an instrument of warfare and mana to the person who owned and used it." (Todd, Whales and Dolphins of Aotearoa New Zealand, Wellington, 2014, p. 104).