The Bullroarer Atlas

No. DALANG2026-001

Daramulan arrives in the bullroarer's voice

Australia · Cumberland Plain and Sydney basin, New South Wales · Southeast

Sacred / spirit

Spencer Museum of Art 2020.0073, the painted double-pointed bullroarer
Plate I. Representative — not this record’s object. Spencer Museum of Art 2020.0073, the painted double-pointed bullroarer Image source

Daramulan (the being whose voice it is)

Source term: 'Bullroarer'

Biiami: the All Father, the sky hero. Daramulan (Dharramulluan): "the One Leg", Biiami's eldest son. Bembul-ra: the created land. Iyura: the people. midyini: the Dharug yam. Garriberri: ceremony.

Daramulan came into the world as a voice: the voice of the bullroarer, the sacred instrument of ceremony. In the creation story Dharug and Dharawal people tell, Biiami sang the rivers, mountains, forests and mangroves into being, called the land Bembul-ra, and set the people, the Iyura, within it. He sent his eldest son, Daramulan, the One Leg, to live in the trees of the bush and make songs for them. Wherever Daramulan's stump pressed into the ground he left the seed of midyini, the Dharug yam, so that the people had food straight from the land. Then Biiami went back to live in the sky, and the peoples sang up to him, asking for ceremony so that everyone would know it. So began Garriberri.

Daramulan arrived on the planet through the voice of the 'Bullroarer'

Dharug and Dharawal Resources, "Biiami"

Particulars

Object
The bullroarer, "a sacred instrument used for special ceremonial practices", through whose voice Daramulan came into the world.

Source

Dharug and Dharawal Resources, "Biiami," Dharug Dalang community language project

View the source

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