{"id":"SAMA2026-002","label":"A song to make the bullroarer","people_or_site":"MacDonald Downs expedition; Iliaura/Alyawarr- and Arrernte-linked catalogue, song ownership unassigned","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Aitjilara / Hatches Creek; recorded at MacDonald Downs","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English catalogue; recorded song language not securely assigned","object_description":"No object; a damaged 1930 wax cylinder preserves a song catalogued as 'To make the bullroarer', recorded at MacDonald Downs and said to come from Aitjilara at Hatches Creek.","function_summary":"A making song for the bullroarer, carried from Aitjilara at Hatches Creek and recorded at MacDonald Downs in 1930.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"tindale_aa338_11_1_as25_aitjilara","source_type":"museum_audio_catalog","source_url":"https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-338-11-1-tracks-1-13","page_or_plate":"official catalogue lines for Record 5 / Track 2 and Song 7 / AS25; field journal AA338/1/6 pp. 127-143","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Official NT Place Names coordinate for historic Hatches Creek, the stated origin of the song; not the recording site or a demonstrated performance point.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"In 1930 Norman Tindale and the musicologist Edward Davies took a wax-cylinder recorder out to MacDonald Downs station in Central Australia and cut a run of songs there. Most carry titles that name a place or a being. Song seven is flatly practical: 'To make the bullroarer.' It was said to have come from Aitjilara, at Hatches Creek, well over a hundred kilometres to the north-east. The cylinder survives, damaged. The archive itself warns that its language labels may follow whoever happened to be singing rather than whose song it was — so the route the song travelled is firmer than its ownership.","pull_quote":"To make the bullroarer (from Aitjilara, Hatches Creek)","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"SA Museum, Tindale AA338/11/1, Record 5 / Song 7 / AS25","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":"South Australian Museum, Norman Tindale AA338/11/1, MacDonald Downs recordings, 1930; Record 5 / Track 2 / Song 7 / AS25","url":"https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-338-11-1-tracks-1-13","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260217034135/https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-338-11-1-tracks-1-13"}],"source_citations":"South Australian Museum, Norman Tindale AA338/11/1, MacDonald Downs recordings, 1930; Record 5 / Track 2 / Song 7 / AS25","source_display":"South Australian Museum, Norman Tindale AA338/11/1, MacDonald Downs recordings, 1930; Record 5 / Track 2 / Song 7 / AS25","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"No object; a damaged 1930 wax cylinder preserves a song catalogued as 'To make the bullroarer', recorded at MacDonald Downs and said to come from Aitjilara at Hatches Creek.","function_display":"A making song for the bullroarer, carried from Aitjilara at Hatches Creek and recorded at MacDonald Downs in 1930.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"macdonald downs","display_name":"A song to make the bullroarer","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":true,"caption":"The Yuendumu svingtræ I.5625, tooled over with concentric rings","pool_id":"auto-museum_harvest2--MUS2026-256_I5625_natmus_a","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-03"},"slug":"sama2026-002-macdonald-downs-expedition-iliaura-alyawarr-and-arrernte-linked-catalogue-son"}