Accession No
Z 1329
Description
Wooden bullroarer, with string and stick.
Place
Oceania; Australasia; Australia; Western Australia
Period
Source
Department
Anth
Reference Numbers
Z 1329
Cultural Affliation
Material
Wood
Local Term
Measurements
Events
Context (CMS Context)
Western Australia
Event Date 28/4/1993
Author: maa
Description (CMS Description)
Wooden bullroarer, with string and stick.
Event Date 28/4/1993
Author: maa
Context (Amendments / updates)
Z 1326- Z 1334 are annotated in pencil in the Accession Register Z 1 'A plausible date of manufacture might be around 1900. and '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".
This one is possibly from northwest Australia (according to Mountford)'.
[Undated CMS update, probably added in the 1990s by curator A.C. Herle]
Event Date 17/9/2025
Author: Rachel Hand
FM:87698
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