Bubu, the cry in the woods

bubu

Source term: Bullroarer

bubu: Awabakal noun, bullroarer.

Awabakal country wraps Lake Macquarie and the coast around Newcastle. When boys reached about fourteen, the elders prepared to bring them into the duties and privileges of manhood, and the summons came out of the dark. The community's own Awabakal language edition lists bubu as the word for bullroarer, files it among the spiritual vocabulary, and gives the roar a second errand: the sound that called the boys in also warned the women away from wherever it was heard.

Suddenly at night, a dismal cry is heard in the woods, which the boys are told is the bubu calling for them.

Traditional Ownership of the Awabakal Language, Community Edition 2025, printed p. 95

Particulars

Object

A bullroarer known by the Awabakal name bubu; no physical description survives.

Function

A night cry told to puberty-age boys as the bubu calling them to initiation.