Building the Outer Persona: an authentic Gaderffii

Back in the beginning of the year, when I was only doing an AgriCorps Jedi impression, I started thinking about what it might look like to do a living history ‘display’ in the GFFA. For actual historic periods, displays at events often take the form of a collection of soldier’s gear laid out for the public:

In my mind’s eye, I thought it might be interesting, starting out, to simply have a collection of in-universe ‘artifacts’ for the public to examine, which could function as potential ‘engagement hooks’ for interpretation.

In thinking of artifacts, I really wanted things that could actually function as what they are (this is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, challenge in GFFA living history)—the hydrospanner that can be used to tighten bolts; the self-heating ration kit that really reheats; the power cell that looks right but can also actually power a glowrod.
Given the limitations of our current technology, I was stumped at first. Then, while leafing through my reference books, I came across the Tusken Raiders* of Tatooine, whose iconic weapon is, of course, the ‘gaffi stick’, or gaderffii. (The pronunciation used in the Kenobi audiobook, with the stress on the middle syllable, brings it close to a British pronunciation of Gaddafi (as in, the former dictator of Libya), which adds a further North African influence (see sidebar below).

As I looked closely, I realized that the basic form of a gaderffii is essentially the same as the ball-head warclub wielded by various indigenous cultures throughout North America, which makes sense, as the original prop was built on a Fijian ‘totokia’ club.
I had already made such a warclub back in 2011, based on one from the Sauk and Fox tribe, so I knew this kind of project was within my capabilities:

About the same time, while I was doing preliminary research for my Rebel persona, I came across the following definition of the gaderffii:
“a curved, double-pointed weapon carried by the Tusken Raiders of Tattooine, but adopted by many Rebels as a useful multi-purpose tool and melee weapon.” (SWRPG 1^st Edition. West End Games, 1987. p 52)
The second edition goes on to do a bit of retcon-ing, claiming “the term ‘gaderffii’ and ‘gaffi stick’ have become popular slang everywhere, used to describe any particularly mean-looking, large, non-powered personal weapon.” (WEG, 1994. p. 95).

I reckoned that such a club could punch a pretty neat hole through a stormtrooper’s white plastoid helmet, and started entertaining the idea of carrying one as part of a Rebel militiaman impression. However, I was wary of basing such a major piece of kit on a single reference, especially considering the source and its vagueness. And then, a breakthrough! A few months later, I was starting a playthrough of LucasArts’ 1997 masterpiece, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight—a major influence on my decision to focus my persona on Sulon. And lo and behold, while reading the game’s manual (p. 38), I came upon:
“The Grave Tuskens are known for their love of robbing the dead. These particular Grave Tuskens are Maw’s cronies who do his unsavoury deeds.”
I had forgotten all about these guys—brought to Sulon by the Dark Jedi as hired mooks. While the Grave Tuskens in the game don’t resemble (except sonically) those of Tatooine or wield gaderffiis (due to limitations of the game engine), their presence did allow the potential for a Rebel on Sulon at the time to possibly come across and collect such a weapon.

With that settled, I gathered reference images and measurements, and then—because I wanted a functional item, not a prop made of screwed-together dowel rods—went into my woods to find a tree with an appropriate root-ball. To achieve a structurally-sound 90° bend, the best trees are those that grow out of a rocky hillside.
(Of course, this was before my resolution to better document my projects, so I don’t have any images of the in-progress phase. Believe me when I say that there was a lot of rasp work, followed by even more careful carving–easy to do when the wood is still green!).

Eventually, I got to the point where I was ready to stain and darken the wood; I used a product called ‘Maple Magic’ normally used for flintlock stocks:

This was followed by a generous coat of Danish oil, and then application of a special ingredient to achieve a weathered patina:
With the wooden club section of the gaderffii completed, I had the hard part done. The metal blade/spikey part can come later. Besides, I have a sneaky suspicion that the metal end makes it useless as anything besides a weapon or digging stick, and impossible to carry safely just about any way I can think of.

*Interesting sidebar:
Deciding on how one refers to this culture is a fun exercise in building the ‘Inner Persona’. In our progressive, politically-correct present, the term ‘Sand People’ kind of seems like an unfortunate epithet, and we might want to use something like ‘Native Tatooinians’). However, doing true living history means recognizing that sometimes our personas hold views that are distasteful to us in the present, and not shying away from them. If Cliegg Lars, Luke Skywalker, and even the enlightened Ben Kenobi all refer to them as Sand People, then so should we.
With that said, the Tuskens and their armed-desert-nomad culture and the way they are used in Star Wars stories do make one think strongly of anti-colonial guerillas a la Lawrence of Arabia. This could make for fascinating topics to include and explore through one’s interpretation.

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