Context (Amendments / updates)
Churinga or bullroarer of dark wood. 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" .
[undated CMS update, probably added in the 1990s by curator A.C. Herle]
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Field collection)
Collected by A. Radcliffe-Brown (then A.R. Brown), Fortescue River, Western Kimberley district, 1910–12.
Event Date 1910
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card for E 1915.20.6-19 notes 'fourteen bullroarers'.
Event Date 1915
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Related Documents)
Catalogue card for E 1915.20.6-19 annotated in pencil 'those corrected described as 'Churinga of dark wood; incised markings.
None of the 14 is in stone. This in the show-case are lettered respectively 'A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N = 13'.
Card annotated later in red ink with initials of F.J.Hayter and dated 3 February 1922. He also updated the spelling of 'Fourteen River' to Fortescue River.

[Added later in black ball point pen with arrow pointing to the display case comment] 'no longer relevant' and underneath notes '3 have lost their labels so individual nos. aren't known'.
A circular red sticker has been stuck to the right hand bottom corner of the card.
Event Date 17/9/2025
Author: Rachel Hand