#gaderffii

“I come from the Māori nation of New Zealand, the Indigenous people — we’re the Down Under Polynesians — and I wanted to bring that kind of spirit and energy, which we call wairua. I’ve been trained in my cultural dance, which we call the haka. I’ve also been trained in some of our weapons, so that’s how I was able to manipulate some of the weapons in my fight scenes and work with the gaffi stick, which my character has.”

Tried to draw a gaderffii on my phone... Inconclusive

Gaderffii, also referred to as gaffi sticks, were the sacred weapon of choice for the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine. A traditional weapon, no two gaderffii looked alike, and their construction was a rite of passage for Tusken warriors. Difficult to handle, in the hands of a master the gaderffii was a dangerous weapon.

Source: The New Essential Guide to Weapons & Technology (2004)

First Appearance: Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (1976)

Though he only had a handful of lines and minimal screen time in the original Star Wars trilogy, Boba Fett became a fan-favorite character, and The Mandalorian is giving him a turn in the spotlight.

Boba Fett is played by Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Though Boba refers to Jango as his father when explaining the history of his armor to Mando, Boba is technically a clone of Jango who was raised like a son by the legendary bounty hunter. Boba Fett fell into a sarlacc pit on Tatooine in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, but The Mandalorian confirms that he survived (albeit with a few scars) and lived on Tatooine for several years afterwards.

Boba Fett tracks Mando to the Jedi planet of Tython and asks that his armor be returned to him. When stormtroopers attack them, Boba gets to show off his prowess with his new weapon, the gaffi stick. The lethal war club made its first appearance alongside the Tusken Raiders that wield it in Star Wars: A New Hope. It also has a coincidental connection to New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison's Pacific background. The gaffi stick is based on a Fijian weapon called a totokia (pictured below). Boba demonstrates just how effective the weapon's spiked head can be, especially in combination with the sharpened spear end that was added for the Star Wars version of it.

As dangerous as it is in battle, the gaffi stick is also a versatile tool. Earlier in The Mandalorian season 2, a Tusken Raider was seen using a gaffi stick to clean a bantha's teeth. Tusken Raiders live a hard and minimalist life out in Tatooine's Dune Sea, so it makes sense that their weapons can also be used for more mundane tasks. The desert-dwelling raiders are not particularly friendly to outsiders, so we can speculate that Boba might have picked up his gaffi stick off the dead body of a Tusken Raider after a fight. It's also possible that Boba may have temporarily allied himself with the raiders during his time on Tatooine, and kept a gaffi stick as a souvenir of that alliance.

Though there are still plenty of blaster battles, The Mandalorian season 2 has also taken the opportunity to showcase the melee weapons of the Star Wars universe. There's Moff Gideon's darksaber, Ahsoka Tano's twin white lightsabers, Mando's new beskar spear, and now Boba Fett's gaderffii. It's a good way of keeping the show's fighting styles and choreography diverse and interesting."

Christian Alzmann, concept and end credits art for The Mandalorian, chapter 9, “The Marshal” (October 30, 2020).