The Bullroarer Atlas

CHINNERY1915-001 - primary ethnography

Hunjara (Koko), Yodda Valley

Papua New Guinea - Yodda Valley - Kokoda - Kumusi Division - Oceania

Restricted

Illustrated 1921 newspaper retelling of Chinnery’s Koko account. The entire page is shown; its photographs are contextual, not secure Koko...
Representative image. Illustrated 1921 newspaper retelling of Chinnery’s Koko account. The entire page is shown; its photographs are contextual, not secure Koko object images. Crossville Chronicle, October 26, 1921, p. 3, retelling E. W. P. Chinnery’s Koko account Public domain Image source

wowow English

Source term: bullroarer

wowow: Hunjara / Koko name printed by Chinnery and Beaver; no literal gloss is given

Near Kokoda in 1911, hooded Hunjara initiates—including girls and women—waited while some thirty wowow roared around them. Men called on dead ancestors and pleaded, “Do not kill my child,” before lifting the hoods and revealing the instruments behind the voices. At the ceremony’s end, their handles and ornaments were burned; the small blades and strings were packed away in secret.

After the trees are pulled down, the bullroarers are exhibited for the first time (at Koko about thirty were brought into play).

Chinnery and Beaver 1915:75
Object
Plain goroba-palm blade attached by strong genda-fibre string to a hard wooden handle; about thirty were brought into play at the witnessed Koko ceremony. No dimensions or surviving specimen are given.
Function
Sounded during initiation preparations and revelation as the presence or voice of spirits; candidates were shown the instruments, after which handles were burned and blades and strings secretly stored.
Map confidence
high - Kokoda / Yodda Valley anchor; the source says the observed Koko sections lived near the government station but does not name the ceremony village.
Source location
pp. 69-77, especially 71, 75, 77

View source Open this point on the interactive map