The Bullroarer Atlas

AUSMAIN-013 - secondary catalog

Worimi

Australia - Port Stephens - lower Hunter River - Southeast NSW

Restricted

Fig. 9 from Mathews' 1898 plate of New South Wales bull-roarers — a slender, pointed blade with a perforation near one end — matching the...
Fig. 9 from Mathews' 1898 plate of New South Wales bull-roarers — a slender, pointed blade with a perforation near one end — matching the gonnandhakeen type of the Hunter–Macleay region and the Worimi name goonanduckyer, whirled during the Keeparra and revealed to initiates at the Winggerah council. R. H. Mathews, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of NSW (1898), plate 9, fig. 9 Public domain Image source

goonanduckyer

goonanduckyer (Kutthung/Gathang): the bull-roarer of the Keeparra, swung as the "voice of Goolumbra"; a larger one was called barroway.

Among the Kutthung (Worimi) of Port Stephens, the bull-roarer of the Keeparra initiation was the goonanduckyer, sounded as the voice of a being called Goolumbra, "of whose terrible powers" the novices were warned. W.J. Enright, admitted as an initiate through his friend R.H. Mathews and gathering his account with Mathews's help, recorded that the goonanduckyer and the sacred message-stick "must never be seen by a women or an uninitiated person," and that he had been assured "instant death would overtake a female or boy unfortunate enough to see one of these implements." The novices first heard the instrument while lying face-down under rugs, taken out of sight of the women; the climax came on the morning before they returned to the women's camp, when, with the boys' heads still covered, two men swung the goonanduckyer, then uncovered their heads so they might see for the first time the instrument whose sound had so impressed them. The secret knowledge was held and exchanged at a winggerah, a closed council of initiates. By January 1899 the dwindling Port Stephens people could no longer gather enough men to hold the rite, and Enright judged that the last Keeparra had probably already been performed.

The goonduckyer and message-stick must never be seen by a women or an uninitiated person, and I have been assured that instant death would overtake a female or boy unfortunate enough to see one of these implements.

Enright, "The Initiation Ceremonies of the Aborigines of Port Stephens, N.S. Wales," Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of N.S.W. 33 (read 5 July 1899): 117
Object
Sacred bull-roarer whirled during the Keeparra; revealed to initiates in the Winggerah council.
Function
Initiation voice; secret-knowledge transfer instrument of Keeparra.
Map confidence
high - approximate territory centroid (mining 2026)
Source location
Mathews JAI 26:320-340

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