{"id":"SAMA2026-004","label":"Sacred motif on a pale cloth","people_or_site":"People unrecorded; Francis James Gillen photograph","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Central Australia","macroregion":"Oceania / Sahul","local_name":"","source_term":"bull roarer","source_language":"English catalogue","object_description":"An early photograph of a bullroarer laid on pale cloth, carved with two semicircles, a circle and lines at both ends, described in the archive as a sacred motif.","function_summary":"Not recorded; only the archive's description of the carving as a sacred motif.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"gillen_aa108_48_2_16_ap6245","source_type":"museum_photo_archive","source_url":"https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-108-48-2-16","page_or_plate":"exact archive item AA108/48/2/16 / AP6245","map_confidence":"low","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Alice Springs telegraph station, Gillen's base 1890-1899; the print's own label says only 'C.Aus'. Not an object findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Sometime between 1890 and 1912, Francis Gillen — the Alice Springs telegraph-station manager who became Baldwin Spencer's partner in recording Central Australian ceremony, and who as special magistrate and sub-protector was effectively the administrator of the region — laid a bullroarer on a light-coloured cloth and photographed it by itself. The archive can still read the carving off the print: two semicircles, a circle, and lines at either end, described as a sacred motif. The label on the back gives one piece of geography, and only one: 'C.Aus.'","pull_quote":"A bull roarer laid out on a light coloured cloth, it has a sacred motif craved [sic] into the wood (two semi-circles, a circle and lines on either end).","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"SA Museum, Gillen AA108/48/2/16, formerly AP6245","term_gloss":"No local term 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, Francis James Gillen AA108/48/2/16, formerly AP6245","url":"https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-108-48-2-16","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260712144609/https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-108-48-2-16"}],"source_citations":"South Australian Museum, Francis James Gillen AA108/48/2/16, formerly AP6245","source_display":"South Australian Museum, Francis James Gillen AA108/48/2/16, formerly AP6245","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"An early photograph of a bullroarer laid on pale cloth, carved with two semicircles, a circle and lines at both ends, described in the archive as a sacred motif.","function_display":"Not recorded; only the archive's description of the carving as a sacred motif.","confidence_display":"low","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"","display_name":"Sacred motif on a pale cloth","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":"A Yuendumu bullroarer tooled over with concentric rings.","pool_id":"auto-museum_harvest2--MUS2026-256_I5625_natmus_a","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-03"},"slug":"sama2026-004-people-unrecorded-francis-james-gillen-photograph"}