The Bullroarer Atlas

No. CAPELL1956-015

Alawa dudugulindji

Australia · Southern tributaries of the Roper River, upstream of the Hodgson River mouth, Northern Territory · Arnhem Land

Function not recorded

I.7291 on its cord, faint arcs incised down the blade
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. I.7291 on its cord, faint arcs incised down the blade CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image source

dudugulindji

Source term: BULLROARER: dudugulindji

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

Alawa speakers called the bullroarer dudugulindji. Their country lies along the southern tributaries of the Roper River, and the Alawa tell how the Mother, Gadjeri, rose out of the sea to rest on a sandbank at the Roper's mouth, then travelled upstream. Her daughters, the Mungamunga girls, merge into her when they go into the water: she comes out as one person, and on dry land stands again as the Mother among her girls. Through this country the Mother is also Kunapipi, and her husband is the Rainbow Snake. The neighbouring Mara called the bullroarer mamuna, the name of the Mother whose voice it is.

Particulars

Object
A bullroarer, called dudugulindji; 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, "Gadjeri", in Lindsay Jones (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2005), vol. 5, pp. 3249-3251
  3. Chris Knight, "Menstrual Synchrony and the Australian Aboriginal Rainbow Snake", in Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb (eds), Blood Magic (Berkeley, 1988), pp. 232-255 View
  • 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
  • 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.