The Bullroarer Atlas

No. CAPELL1956-012

Wangurri djurbur

Australia · North-east Arnhem Land, around Arnhem Bay and Elcho Island, Northern Territory

Function not recorded

Hammond’s drawing of a broad woondah blade with zigzag notches along both long edges and a cord loop at one end.
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Woondah, the corded bullroarer in Hammond’s implements plate (1933) Image source

djurbur

Source term: BULLROARER: djurbur

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

Wangurri speakers called the bullroarer djurbur, the same word as the Yan-nhaŋu of the Crocodile Islands. Wangurri is a clan language of the Yirritja moiety in north-east Arnhem Land, its people at home around Arnhem Bay and on Elcho Island. Their song cycles include the Moon-Bone song of the Wonguri-Mandjikai, one of the best known of all Arnhem Land song poems.

Particulars

Object
A bullroarer, called djurbur; 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. Ronald M. Berndt, "A Wonguri-'Mandjikai Song Cycle of the Moon-Bone", Oceania 19, no. 1 (1948): 16-50
  • 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
  • Gunwinggu gubarAustralia · Western Arnhem Land stone country, Liverpool River to Oenpelli (Gunbalanya), 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

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