{"id":"MUS2026-222","label":"Charlotte Waters emu churinga","people_or_site":"Charlotte Waters / Hermannsburg, Northern Territory (people not named on the record; Arandic country)","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Charlotte Waters and Hermannsburg, Northern Territory (both places named in the museum's locality string)","macroregion":"Australia","local_name":"Ilia; Namatuma","source_term":"Emu churinga or bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A wooden blade inscribed with designs representing a totemic ancestor, with a hole in one end for the attachment of a cord.","function_summary":"A churinga inscribed with sacred designs, not to be seen by uninitiated people; wooden examples pierced at one end for a cord make their characteristic sound when whirled.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"maa_e1909_933_emu_churinga_bullroarer","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/492195/","page_or_plate":"MAA E 1909.933 (object 492195)","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative point at Charlotte Waters telegraph station, southern Northern Territory, the first of the two localities in the museum's place string. The record also names Hermannsburg, some 300 km to the north-west, and does not say which of the two is the collecting place.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"A wooden blade cut over with the design of a totemic ancestor, an emu, and pierced at one end so a cord could be knotted through it. It came from somewhere between Charlotte Waters and Hermannsburg in the southern Northern Territory in 1908, and reached Cambridge the following year. What came with it is rarer than the blade itself: the object's own names, Ilia, and Namatuma. Two words for one blade, set down without translation.","pull_quote":"Emu churinga or bullroarer, inscribed with designs representing a totemic ancestor. Hole in end.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, catalogue description for accession E 1909.933","term_gloss":"Ilia and Namatuma: two local names recorded together for this one blade.","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, E 1909.933 (Charlotte Waters / Hermannsburg, Northern Territory; collected by H. J. Hillier)","url":"https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/492195/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013133725/https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/492195/"}],"source_citations":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, E 1909.933 (Charlotte Waters / Hermannsburg, Northern Territory; collected by H. J. Hillier)","source_display":"Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, E 1909.933 (Charlotte Waters / Hermannsburg, Northern Territory; collected by H. J. Hillier)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A wooden blade inscribed with designs representing a totemic ancestor, with a hole in one end for the attachment of a cord.","function_display":"A churinga inscribed with sacred designs, not to be seen by uninitiated people; wooden examples pierced at one end for a cord make their characteristic sound when whirled.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"charlotte waters","display_name":"Charlotte Waters emu churinga","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-371_mus2026-371-aritunga-721965718.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-371_mus2026-371-aritunga-721965718_thumb.jpg","alt":"A long pale-brown Arrernte aritunga from the Hermannsburg region engraved with three concentric-circle motifs between paired curved arcs.","credit":"© Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 72.1965.7.18","license":"Rights reserved (© Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac). Authorization required for diffusion: catalogue StatusFlags says “Ne pas diffuser l’image” and omits public image fields; accessible via official public proxy. Proposal for owner review only; publication is not authorized. Cropped.","source_page":"https://collections.quaibranly.fr/#/objet/303782","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Engraved Arrernte aritunga, Hermannsburg region","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-371_mus2026-371-aritunga-721965718"},"slug":"mus2026-222-charlotte-waters-hermannsburg-northern-territory-people-not-named-on-the-recor"}