The Bullroarer Atlas

No. CAPELL1956-003

Djinba malaidjara

Australia · Inland from the northern Arafura Swamp to the upper Goyder River, central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory

Function not recorded

A painted churinga from the Ringve Music Museum
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. A painted churinga from the Ringve Music Museum Image source

malaidjara

Source term: BULLROARER: malaidjara

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

Djinba speakers called the bullroarer malaidjara, a name heard nowhere else among their neighbours. Their country runs inland from the northern edge of the Arafura Swamp to the upper Goyder River, and holds clans of both moieties, Dhuwa and Yirritja. In the ceremonies of this country the roar of the blade was the voice of the great python Yurlunggur. Around them the instrument was maralbindi to Djinang and Ritharrngu speakers and djurbur to the Wangurri and Yan-nhaŋu.

Particulars

Object
A bullroarer, called malaidjara; 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
  • Burarra maralbindiAustralia · Coast on both sides of the Blyth River mouth, east to Cape Stewart, north-central Arnhem Land, 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
  • 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.