No. BERNDT1985-001
Ngadjuri wetana
Mid North of South Australia, north of Adelaide (Burra–Clare country)
Function not recorded
wetana
Source term: bull roarers
wetana: Ngadjuri, the ordinary bullroarer (Port Lincoln witarna). wilyaru: the final stage of male initiation, with cicatrisation.
Wetana was the Ngadjuri word for the bullroarer. The Ngadjuri held the Mid North of South Australia, north of Adelaide, and were divided into matrilineal groups, each tied to a natural species; children were named for their order of birth. Barney Waria, a Ngadjuri elder of the mid-twentieth century, carried such a name, Waria, "two", a second-born child; his ritual name was Ngadlibuna. His word wetana answers to the Port Lincoln witarna, the ordinary bullroarer swung at the wilyaru, the last stage of a youth's initiation, when one was hung by its cord around each young man's neck.
Particulars
- Object
- The ordinary bullroarer, swung on a cord, called wetana in Ngadjuri.
- Function
- Not recorded for the Ngadjuri themselves; wetana is given as the Ngadjuri word for the ordinary bullroarer swung at the wilyaru, the final initiation of the Port Lincoln (Banggala) people.
Source
R. M. Berndt, "Traditional Aborigines," in C. R. Twidale, M. J. Tyler and M. Davies (eds), Natural History of Eyre Peninsula (Royal Society of South Australia, 1985), pp. 132, 135