Context (Field collection)
Collected by A. Radcliffe-Brown in Western Kimberley district
Event Date 1914
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Small, wooden bullroarer, with both faces carved. A cord is attached.

Churinga are inscribed with sacred designs, which represent a totemic ancestor. Aboriginal women and uninitiated boys are forbidden to see them. Their meaning is only fully divulged to men who are initiated into that totem and who are of elder status. Those with a hole bored in one end (stone ones excepted), for the attachment of a cord, are called bullroarers. When whirled round, they produce a characteristic sound believed to be "spirit talk"
Event Date 28/4/1993
Author: maa

Context (Related Documents)
Listed [incorrectly as 1915.203] on Doc.270, two typescript lists of heelball rubbings of sacred boards [also known as bullroarers /churinga/jurunga tjuringa] by Colonel Frederick James Hayter, Honorary Keeper of the Australian collections (1928-1946). Consists of 44 pieces of paper, most with multiple rubbings and annotations, potentially descriptions and origins.

It is not known which list gives the correct contents as the rubbings and their accession numbers have not been physically cross-checked due to cultural sensitivities.
#1'Churinga rubbings arranged in chronological order' (with a pencil annotated duplicate version).
#2 'Australia/ Heelball rubbings of Churinga arranged in the order following' authored and dated F.J. Hayter, 11 October 1930.
The accession numbers on the lists have been adapted to follow the format of MAA accession numbers.
Event Date 17/9/2025
Author: Rachel Hand