{"id":"BERNDT1985-001","label":"Ngadjuri wetana","people_or_site":"Ngadjuri","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Mid North of South Australia, north of Adelaide (Burra–Clare country)","macroregion":"Australia / South Australia","local_name":"wetana","source_term":"bull roarers","source_language":"English / Ngadjuri","object_description":"The ordinary bullroarer, swung on a cord, called wetana in Ngadjuri.","function_summary":"Not recorded for the Ngadjuri themselves; wetana is given as the Ngadjuri word for the ordinary bullroarer swung at the wilyaru, the final initiation of the Port Lincoln (Banggala) people.","attestation_type":"lexical_attestation","source_key":"berndt1985_traditional_aborigines_eyre","source_type":"scholarly_article","source_url":"https://www.rssa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/nheyrepen.pdf","page_or_plate":"p. 135 (\"ordinary bull roarers (witarna; Ngadjuri, wetana) were swung\"); p. 131 (Ngadjuri matrilineal groups); p. 132 (birth-order names); p. 135 (Barney Waria, ritual name Ngadlibuna); p. 128 (Berndt's Ngadjuri fieldwork 1939, 1940, 1942)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative anchor for Ngadjuri country in the Mid North of South Australia, near Burra; no event or object locality recorded.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Wetana was the Ngadjuri word for the bullroarer. The Ngadjuri held the Mid North of South Australia, north of Adelaide, and were divided into matrilineal groups, each tied to a natural species; children were named for their order of birth. Barney Waria, a Ngadjuri elder of the mid-twentieth century, carried such a name, Waria, \"two\", a second-born child; his ritual name was Ngadlibuna. His word wetana answers to the Port Lincoln witarna, the ordinary bullroarer swung at the wilyaru, the last stage of a youth's initiation, when one was hung by its cord around each young man's neck.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"wetana: Ngadjuri, the ordinary bullroarer (Port Lincoln witarna). wilyaru: the final stage of male initiation, with cicatrisation.","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"R. M. Berndt, \"Traditional Aborigines,\" in C. R. Twidale, M. J. Tyler and M. Davies (eds), Natural History of Eyre Peninsula (Royal Society of South Australia, 1985), pp. 132, 135","url":"https://www.rssa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/nheyrepen.pdf"}],"source_citations":"R. M. Berndt, \"Traditional Aborigines,\" in C. R. Twidale, M. J. Tyler and M. Davies (eds), Natural History of Eyre Peninsula (Royal Society of South Australia, 1985), pp. 132, 135","source_display":"R. M. Berndt, \"Traditional Aborigines,\" in C. R. Twidale, M. J. Tyler and M. Davies (eds), Natural History of Eyre Peninsula (Royal Society of South Australia, 1985), pp. 132, 135","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"The ordinary bullroarer, swung on a cord, called wetana in Ngadjuri.","function_display":"Not recorded for the Ngadjuri themselves; wetana is given as the Ngadjuri word for the ordinary bullroarer swung at the wilyaru, the final initiation of the Port Lincoln (Banggala) people.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"lexical attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ngadjuri","display_name":"Ngadjuri wetana","image":{"full":"assets/objects/KTBULL2026-001.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/KTBULL2026-001_thumb.jpg","credit":"Hiking the World, 1X3A7669_yre","license":"Copyright status not stated; rehosted for research atlas context","source_page":"https://hikingtheworld.blog/engravings/kings-tableland-bullroarer-and-stencils-shelter/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Enhanced view of the Kings Tableland Shelter 2 bullroarer","pool_id":"auto-KTBULL2026-001","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"berndt1985-001-ngadjuri"}