Cairns X-ray fish bullroarer

Made in Cairns in 1990, this board of wattle wood carries a fish painted in the X-ray manner — spine and innards shown through the body — in ochres over a dark ground. Yaderleye of the Yidinji, whose country takes in Cairns, carved it, and the card that came with it reads 'PAINTED BY Gerry.' What it was made for went unrecorded — but at Freshwater, just up the coast, bullroarers of this country sit in the Pitt Rivers catalogued as secret-sacred: men's objects, not for public view.

Particulars

Object

University of Edinburgh MIMEd 3112: a wattle-wood board, 210 x 90 mm, made in Cairns in 1990, painted in ochres with an X-ray-style fish, with its cord.

Function

Secret/sacred by locality: Pitt Rivers bullroarers collected at Freshwater near Cairns are catalogued as secret-sacred men's objects under the museum's 2012 determination; the Edinburgh card records no function for this 1990 painted piece itself.