Context (CMS Context)
Found: Western Kimberley district; Collected by: Radcliffe-Brown.A
Event Date 28/4/1993
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
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"
Event Date 28/4/1993
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
There are four tjuringa (churinga) in this box all numbered only 15-20.(16-19) [actually E 1915.2-.6-19] but they have lost their individual labels connected them to the individual accession numbers.
They have each been labelled with the accession numbers of those not yet located until hey can be correctly attributed. There are:
E 1915.20.11
E 1915.20.12
E 1915.20.15
E 1915.20.19
The unconnected objects are
1- Narrow with chevron and diagonal lines inscribed on the surface in rectangular fields, picked out in lime. Possibly featured in a sketch at the University of Sydney, Collection Reference: P129
Allocated to E 1915.20.11 in the absence of further documentation and to allow an image to be connected to the object.
2- arrow with chevron and diagonal lines inscribed on the surface in rectangular fields, covered in red ochre. Possibly labelled A.
Allocated to E 1915.20.12 in the absence of further documentation and to allow an image to be connected to the object.
3- Narrow with horizontal and vertical lines arranged in chevrons, picked out in lime. Labelled 'A' on this very similar to but not the same as one illustrated by Brown in a sketch at the University of Sydney, Collection Reference: P129
Allocated to E 1915.20.15 in the absence of further documentation and to allow an image to be connected to the object.
4- small and oval inscribed with chevron lines across the body and four parallel vertical lines at one end. This appears to have been featured by Brown in a sketch at the University of Sydney, Collection Reference: P129, though the prominence of vertical fields appears stronger in the photograph than the sketch.
Allocated to E 1915.20.19 in the absence of further documentation and to allow an image to be connected to the object.
Event Date 14/11/2018
Author: rachel hand