Context (Field collection)
Collected by: ?Haddon, Dr A.C. in ?1898
Event Date
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Wooden bullroarer, with string and stick.
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
Z 1326- Z 1334 are annotated in pencil in the Accession Register Z 1, 'Found in store, not registered, few if any particulars on some labels'.
Initialled by F.J. Hayter and dated 25 October 1928 [month unclear as written '25/11/28'].
Event Date 17/9/2025
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Amendments / updates)
'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".
A plausible date of manufacture is c.1900'.
[Undated CMS update, probably added in the 1990s by curator A.C. Herle]
Event Date 17/9/2025
Author: Rachel Hand