{"id":"SAMA2026-001","label":"The message he ignored","people_or_site":"Kokata/Pitjantjatjara-linked Gerard recording","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Gerard / Jalukari reference","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English catalogue / Pitjantjatjara and Ngalia recording metadata","object_description":"A bullroarer that carried a message from Jalukari.","function_summary":"Carried a summons from Jalukari, which the man named in the recording ignored; among Australian peoples a bullroarer sent by messenger called distant groups to ceremony and gave its bearer safe conduct.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"tindale_aa338_11_27_jalukari","source_type":"museum_audio_catalog","source_url":"https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-338-11-27-cds-1-4","page_or_plate":"Reel 1 CD1 tracks 1-11 catalogue synopsis","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Gerard recording-site anchor only; not Jalukari or the message's origin.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Gerard, on the Murray near Loxton, opened as a mission in 1945, and among the people brought there were children taken from Ooldea, a thousand kilometres west at the edge of the Nullarbor. On 25 July 1964 Norman Tindale recorded Daniel Mudu and Jimmy James at Gerard, talking about Kokata men from north of the Nullarbor and about their own histories. One line Tindale wrote on the box of that first reel stays with you: Henry got a message on a bullroarer from Jalukari, ignored it, and stayed at Gerard. Here the instrument carried a summons a man could refuse. The summons was an institution, not an oddity: Spencer saw Mungarai messengers carry kunapippi to distant camps to call them to ceremony, perfectly safe so long as they carried it, and Howitt's Kulin messenger bore a bullroarer when he called a meeting for the initiation of boys. Of such a call the Kurnai said that when the wood goes to a man he must come, he cannot stay away. Henry stayed away.","pull_quote":"These men escaped initiation by being taken by missionaries to Gerard. They were therefore 'grown up children' in their knowledge of former life.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Norman B. Tindale, tape-box annotation, Reel 1 (CD 1, tracks 1-11), Gerard, 25 July 1964 (South Australian Museum AA338/11/27)","term_gloss":"No local instrument name recorded.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"South Australian Museum, Norman Tindale AA338/11/27 CDs 1-4, Gerard recordings, 25 July 1964; Baldwin Spencer, Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (1914), pp. 164-165, 214; A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904), pp. 700-701","url":"https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-338-11-27-cds-1-4","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260215145110/https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-338-11-27-cds-1-4"}],"source_citations":"South Australian Museum, Norman Tindale AA338/11/27 CDs 1-4, Gerard recordings, 25 July 1964; Baldwin Spencer, Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (1914), pp. 164-165, 214; A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904), pp. 700-701","source_display":"South Australian Museum, Norman Tindale AA338/11/27 CDs 1-4, Gerard recordings, 25 July 1964; Baldwin Spencer, Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (1914), pp. 164-165, 214; A. W. Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia (1904), pp. 700-701","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer that carried a message from Jalukari.","function_display":"Carried a summons from Jalukari, which the man named in the recording ignored; among Australian peoples a bullroarer sent by messenger called distant groups to ceremony and gave its bearer safe conduct.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"kokata","display_name":"The message he ignored","image":{"full":"assets/objects/AUSMAIN-019_ypm_ant009818_musgrave.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/AUSMAIN-019_ypm_ant009818_musgrave_thumb.jpg","alt":"A long reddish wooden bullroarer from the Musgrave Ranges, with rounded tapered ends, a small perforation near one end and incised concentric-circle motifs.","credit":"Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Division of Anthropology (YPM ANT 009818)","license":"CC0 (Yale Peabody Museum)","source_page":"https://collections.peabody.yale.edu/search/Record/YPM-ANT-009818","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Musgrave Ranges bullroarer incised with concentric circles.","pool_id":"auto-AUSMAIN-019_ypm_ant009818_musgrave","last_modified":"2026-09-06"},"slug":"sama2026-001-kokata-pitjantjatjara-linked-gerard-recording"}