{"id":"FRY1933-001","label":"Manabokma before the tjuruna","people_or_site":"Ngalia","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Central Australia, Northern Territory: Ngalia country north-west of Alice Springs (Mount Doreen–Cockatoo Creek); Fry's informants met the Adelaide University party at Mount Liebig in August 1932","macroregion":"Australia / Central Australia","local_name":"manabokma","source_term":"manabokma (Ngalia); small bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A small bullroarer, the manabokma, which Fry equates with the Aranda namatuna.","function_summary":"Given to a boy after circumcision and before he was shown his tjuruna.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"fry1933_body_and_soul","source_type":"ethnographic_literature","source_url":"https://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/2490.pdf","page_or_plate":"Montagu 1937 p. 99 (Fry 1933 quoted)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Tindale's Ngalia (NT) territory coordinate, 131°0'E x 22°15'S (South Australian Museum, Ngalia (NT) language-group page). Mount Liebig is the 1932 meeting place, not the territory.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"For a Ngalia boy, circumcision opened a door rather than closing one. After the cut, and before the old men showed him his tjuruna, he was given a manabokma, a small bullroarer of his own, the instrument the Aranda called namatuna. The humming blade came first and the tjuruna waited. The Ngalia were desert people of the country around Mount Liebig, west of Alice Springs. In 1972 the Papunya painter Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra laid out a Mala, spinifex-wallaby, ceremony as if from above. The dancers' tracks hop in from the edges toward the centre, their slowing gait marked by tails and front paws; painted figures at top and bottom swing bullroarers on taut strings, their thrum warning the uninitiated off the ground. The four great ovals in the corners are probably where the newly initiated learned the Mala songs, designs and dances. It was painted just before the August 1972 quarrel at Yuendumu over sacred detail shown in public.","pull_quote":"After a boy has been circumcised, but before he has been shown his tjuruna, he is given a mataki (Pintubi) manabokma (Ngalia).","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"H. K. Fry, “Body and Soul,” Oceania 3 (1933), quoted in M. F. Ashley-Montagu, Coming into Being among the Australian Aborigines (1937), p. 99","term_gloss":"manabokma: the Ngalia small bullroarer given after circumcision (Pintupi mataki, Aranda namatuna). tjuruna: the sacred boards and stones shown to a man later in his initiation.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"H. K. Fry, “Body and Soul: A Study from Western Central Australia,” Oceania 3 (1933): 247–256, quoted in M. F. Ashley-Montagu, Coming into Being among the Australian Aborigines (1937), p. 99","url":"https://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/2490.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20231015042616/https://ignca.gov.in/Asi_data/2490.pdf"},{"citation":"John Kean, catalogue essay on Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Mala (Spinifex Wallaby), 1972, Deutscher+Hackett, 29 November 2017, lot 45","url":"https://www.deutscherandhackett.com/auctions/52-important-fine-art-indigenous-art/45/"}],"source_citations":"H. K. Fry, “Body and Soul: A Study from Western Central Australia,” Oceania 3 (1933): 247–256, quoted in M. F. Ashley-Montagu, Coming into Being among the Australian Aborigines (1937), p. 99; John Kean, catalogue essay on Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Mala (Spinifex Wallaby), 1972, Deutscher+Hackett, 29 November 2017, lot 45","source_display":"H. K. Fry, “Body and Soul: A Study from Western Central Australia,” Oceania 3 (1933): 247–256, quoted in M. F. Ashley-Montagu, Coming into Being among the Australian Aborigines (1937), p. 99; John Kean, catalogue essay on Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Mala (Spinifex Wallaby), 1972, Deutscher+Hackett, 29 November 2017, lot 45","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A small bullroarer, the manabokma, which Fry equates with the Aranda namatuna.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ngalia","display_name":"Manabokma before the tjuruna","image":{"full":"assets/objects/FRY1933-001_tjakamarra1972_mala.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/FRY1933-001_tjakamarra1972_mala_thumb.jpg","alt":"Painting on black ground of four large patterned ovals, dancing figures and small bullroarers on cords.","credit":"Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Mala (Spinifex Wallaby) (1972); Deutscher+Hackett, 29 November 2017, lot 45","source_page":"https://www.deutscherandhackett.com/auctions/52-important-fine-art-indigenous-art/45/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Mala (Spinifex Wallaby), 1972: wallaby dancers hop to the centre; figures swing bullroarers top and bottom.","last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"fry1933-001-ngalia"}