The Bullroarer Atlas

No. CAPELL1956-002

Burarra maralbindi

Australia · Coast on both sides of the Blyth River mouth, east to Cape Stewart, north-central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory

Function not recorded

Spencer Museum of Art 2020.0073, the painted double-pointed bullroarer
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Spencer Museum of Art 2020.0073, the painted double-pointed bullroarer Image source

maralbindi

Source term: BULLROARER: maralbindi

maralbindi: bullroarer (Capell 1956, p. 18, BULLROARER column)

In Burarra, the language of the Blyth River mouth and the coast east to Cape Stewart, the bullroarer was maralbindi. The name was shared well beyond Burarra country: Djinang speakers to the east and Ritharrngu speakers inland used it too, and far to the south the Ngandi called the instrument maralpiṇḍiʔ. In the great ceremonies of the Yolŋu clans to the east, the roar of the blade was the voice of the python Yurlunggur.

Particulars

Object
A bullroarer, called maralbindi; its form is not recorded.
Function
Not recorded.

Source

Arthur Capell, A Vocabulary of 600 Words in Forty North Australian Languages (typescript, Sydney, 1956), State Library of New South Wales A 6929, p. 18

View the source

  • Alawa dudugulindjiAustralia · Southern tributaries of the Roper River, upstream of the Hodgson River mouth, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Djinang maralbindiAustralia · Crocodile Islands and Milingimbi south to the middle Blyth River and east to the Glyde River, north-central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Djinba malaidjaraAustralia · Inland from the northern Arafura Swamp to the upper Goyder River, central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Wandarang wugunabibiAustralia · Inland from the Phelp River coast, west toward Mount Leane, south-eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Yan-nhaŋu djurburAustralia · Crocodile Islands (Milingimbi, Murrungga, Rapuma) off north-central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory · Function not recorded
  • Gunwinggu gubarAustralia · Western Arnhem Land stone country, Liverpool River to Oenpelli (Gunbalanya), Northern Territory · Function not recorded

Part of The Bullroarer Atlas, companion to The Eve Theory of Consciousness.