{"id":"TINDALE1974-001","label":"Potaruwutj mimikur talking-tree bullroarer","people_or_site":"Potaruwutj (Bindjali / Bodaruwitj)","country_current":"Australia","historic_region":"Tatiara / Naracoorte-Bordertown district / South Australia","macroregion":"Australia","local_name":"mimikur","source_term":"wooden bull-roarer","source_language":"English / Potaruwutj terms","object_description":"Wooden bullroarer kept suspended in a katal or talking tree; no cord, hole, dimensions, blade shape, active whirling, or object figure is supplied.","function_summary":"Dongaganinj kept it in a talking tree whose chafing branches brought news; speaking a man's name to the mimikur could make that person ill or kill him.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"tindale_1974_potaruwutj_mimikur","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/b71d03b1-4a53-447f-a1ee-d876fafd43a5","page_or_plate":"printed p. 35; PDF p. 45","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"South Australian Museum Potaruwutj group coordinate; not a claimed location for Dongaganinj's talking tree.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Dongaganinj kept his wooden mimikur hanging in a talking tree whose rubbing branches carried news from far away. The Potaruwutj magician could speak a man's name to the bullroarer in the tree and make him fall ill or die: an instrument suspended between distant knowledge and danger.","pull_quote":"He had a wooden bull-roarer or mimikur that he kept suspended in a katal or 'talking tree'.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Tindale 1974:35","term_gloss":"mimikur: Potaruwutj bullroarer; katal: talking tree","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":"Norman B. Tindale, Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (Canberra: ANU Press, 1974), p. 35","url":"https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/b71d03b1-4a53-447f-a1ee-d876fafd43a5","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260827115907/https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/b71d03b1-4a53-447f-a1ee-d876fafd43a5"}],"source_citations":"Norman B. Tindale, Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (Canberra: ANU Press, 1974), p. 35","source_display":"Norman B. Tindale, Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (Canberra: ANU Press, 1974), p. 35","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Wooden bullroarer kept suspended in a katal or talking tree; no cord, hole, dimensions, blade shape, active whirling, or object figure is supplied.","function_display":"Dongaganinj kept it in a talking tree whose chafing branches brought news; speaking a man's name to the mimikur could make that person ill or kill him.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"potaruwutj bindjali","display_name":"Potaruwutj mimikur talking-tree bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/wereldmuseum_46.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/wereldmuseum_46_thumb.jpg","alt":"A long red-brown bull-roarer blade incised from end to end.","credit":"Wereldmuseum / NMVW (acc. RV-2399-60)","license":"","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/739444","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"A long red-brown incised Aboriginal blade (Wereldmuseum).","pool_id":"auto-museum_harvest--wereldmuseum_46"},"slug":"tindale1974-001-potaruwutj-bindjali-bodaruwitj"}