{"id":"MUS2026-256","label":"Yuendumu Warlpiri ornamented blade","people_or_site":"Warlpiri (museum: Wailbri)","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"West of Yuendumu mission station, Northern Territory","macroregion":"Australia / Central Australia","local_name":"","source_term":"svingtræ","source_language":"Danish","object_description":"Gently curved wooden blade worked with ornament, 46 × 6 cm.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"natmus_i5625","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://samlinger.natmus.dk/es/object/63690","page_or_plate":"I.5625; object 63690","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Approximate anchor west of Yuendumu; no camp or collecting coordinate is recorded.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Gently curved along its length and worked with ornament, this forty-six-centimetre blade left Warlpiri country west of Yuendumu in 1955. Warlpiri men also whirled the sacred board for love. Spencer and Gillen counted the Warlpiri — their ‘Walparri’ — among the peoples who swung a small churinga to win a wife: its hum was believed to carry to a far-off woman and compel her, sooner or later, to come. The charm kept the marriage law; it could call only a woman a man was entitled to marry. Warlpiri practice sorts ceremony by who may be present: the tarruku events tied to male initiation cannot be witnessed by women, though senior women know their content and their purposes.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Nationalmuseet I.5625","term_gloss":"","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":"Nationalmuseet (National Museum of Denmark), I.5625, Jens Bjerre collection, 1955.","url":"https://samlinger.natmus.dk/es/object/63690","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240723000917/https://samlinger.natmus.dk/es/object/63690"},{"citation":"Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (London: Macmillan, 1899), pp. 541-542 (Walparri use of namatwinna-type churinga in love magic).","url":"https://archive.org/details/nativetribesofce00spenuoft/page/541/mode/1up"}],"source_citations":"Nationalmuseet (National Museum of Denmark), I.5625, Jens Bjerre collection, 1955.; Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (London: Macmillan, 1899), pp. 541-542 (Walparri use of namatwinna-type churinga in love magic).","source_display":"Nationalmuseet (National Museum of Denmark), I.5625, Jens Bjerre collection, 1955.; Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (London: Macmillan, 1899), pp. 541-542 (Walparri use of namatwinna-type churinga in love magic).","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Gently curved wooden blade worked with ornament, 46 × 6 cm.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"warlpiri","display_name":"Yuendumu Warlpiri ornamented blade","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/MUS2026-256_I5625_natmus_a.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/thumbs/MUS2026-256_I5625_natmus_a_thumb.jpg","alt":"The Warlpiri svingtræ I.5625 from Yuendumu: a curved brown wooden blade tooled across its face with concentric rings.","credit":"Nationalmuseet, Denmark (I.5625)","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://samlinger.natmus.dk/es/object/63690 (asset/327759, asset/327760)","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Yuendumu svingtræ I.5625, tooled over with concentric rings.","last_modified":"2026-09-01","additional":[{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/MUS2026-256_I5625_natmus_b.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest2/thumbs/MUS2026-256_I5625_natmus_b_thumb.jpg","credit":"Nationalmuseet, Denmark (I.5625)","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The reverse face, split and worn, numbered I.5625."}]},"slug":"mus2026-256-warlpiri-museum-wailbri"}