{"id":"CAPELL1956-008","label":"Mengerrdji uwarm","people_or_site":"Mengerrdji (Capell's Mangeri)","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Alligator Rivers country around Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory","macroregion":"Australia / Arnhem Land","local_name":"uwarm","source_term":"BULLROARER: uwarm","source_language":"Mengerrdji","object_description":"A bullroarer, called uwarm; its form is not recorded.","function_summary":"Named for the Ubar, the sacred ceremony of west Arnhem Land.","attestation_type":"lexical_attestation","source_key":"capell1956_vocabulary_600_words","source_type":"linguistic_manuscript","source_url":"https://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/node/9216","page_or_plate":"Capell 1956 p. 18 (BULLROARER column, line 5); language key, line 5 = Maŋe:ri.","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"approximate Mengerrdji language anchor from the TLCMap language layer (Mengerr, -12.3095, 133.016); a language-level anchor, not a collection point","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Mengerrdji speakers gave uwarm for the bullroarer. Around Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) the Alligator Rivers languages called their great ceremony Ubarr, and the bullroarer took the rite's name, with a final m Mengerrdji shares only with neighbouring Urningangk. Mengerrdji was one of the small languages of that country, spoken beside Urningangk, Erre and Kunwinjku.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"uwarm: the name of the Ubar ceremony, given in answer to 'bullroarer' (Capell 1956, p. 18; Capell & Hinch 1970, wuwar 'Ubar ceremony')","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":["snake"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":true,"sources":[{"citation":"Arthur Capell, A Vocabulary of 600 Words in Forty North Australian Languages (typescript, Sydney, 1956), State Library of New South Wales A 6929, p. 18","url":"https://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/node/9216"},{"citation":"Arthur Capell and Heather E. Hinch, Maung Grammar, Texts and Vocabulary (The Hague: Mouton, 1970), vocabulary, wuwar 'Ubar ceremony'","url":"https://archive.org/details/maunggrammartext0000acap"},{"citation":"Murray Garde, 'The Forbidden Gaze', in Martin Thomas and Margo Neale (eds), Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition (ANU Press, 2011), pp. 403–407","url":"https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p116081/pdf/ch201.pdf"},{"citation":"Ronald M. Berndt, Kunapipi (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1951)","url":""}],"source_citations":"Arthur Capell, A Vocabulary of 600 Words in Forty North Australian Languages (typescript, Sydney, 1956), State Library of New South Wales A 6929, p. 18; Arthur Capell and Heather E. Hinch, Maung Grammar, Texts and Vocabulary (The Hague: Mouton, 1970), vocabulary, wuwar 'Ubar ceremony'; Murray Garde, 'The Forbidden Gaze', in Martin Thomas and Margo Neale (eds), Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition (ANU Press, 2011), pp. 403–407; Ronald M. Berndt, Kunapipi (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1951)","source_display":"Arthur Capell, A Vocabulary of 600 Words in Forty North Australian Languages (typescript, Sydney, 1956), State Library of New South Wales A 6929, p. 18; Arthur Capell and Heather E. Hinch, Maung Grammar, Texts and Vocabulary (The Hague: Mouton, 1970), vocabulary, wuwar 'Ubar ceremony'; Murray Garde, 'The Forbidden Gaze', in Martin Thomas and Margo Neale…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer, called uwarm; its form is not recorded.","function_display":"Named for the Ubar, the sacred ceremony of west Arnhem Land.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"lexical attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"mengerrdji","display_name":"Mengerrdji uwarm","image":{"full":"assets/objects/pd_plates/MAT1898-011.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/pd_plates/MAT1898-011_thumb.jpg","alt":"Plate 9, fig. 12: the large dhooanbooka / yoolundry bullroarer, with a notched narrow end, two holes and a band of straight transverse lines across its broad face.","credit":"R. H. Mathews, Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales, 1907, Plate 9 figs. 12, 13 & 15","license":"Public domain (published 1907)","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notes_on_the_Aborigines_of_New_South_Wales_-_Plate_9_Bull-roarers_used_by_the_Australian_Aborigines.jpg","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Plate 9, fig. 12: the large hatched bull-roarer dhooanbooka / yoolundry","pool_id":"auto-pd_plates--MAT1898-011","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"capell1956-008-mengerrdji-capell-s-mangeri"}