The Bullroarer Atlas

No. CAPELL1956-010

Wandarang wugunabibi

Australia · Inland from the Phelp River coast, west toward Mount Leane, south-eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory

Function not recorded

Schmeltz's Plate IV, fig. 10
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Schmeltz's Plate IV, fig. 10 Public domain · Image source

wugunabibi

Source term: BULLROARER: wugunabibi

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

Wandarang speakers called the bullroarer wugunabibi. Their country lay inland from the Phelp River coast in south-eastern Arnhem Land, west toward Mount Leane, between the Nunggubuyu and the Mara and Alawa of the Roper River. The word holds the name Gunabibi, the great initiation ceremony of that country, whose central being is the Rainbow Serpent, and the Ngalakan to the west likewise called their bullroarer kunapippi; the neighbouring Mara and Nunggubuyu said mamuna.

Particulars

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

Sources

  1. 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
  2. Baldwin Spencer, Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (London: Macmillan, 1914), p. 176 View
  • 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
  • Djinba malaidjaraAustralia · Inland from the northern Arafura Swamp to the upper Goyder River, central 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.