The Bullroarer Atlas

MAT1898-011 - ethnographic attestation

Clarence and Richmond River tribes

Australia - Clarence and Richmond Rivers - Southeast

Restricted

Plate 9, fig. 12: the large hatched bull-roarer dhooanbooka / yoolundry of the Clarence and Richmond River tribes; the small companion...
Plate 9, fig. 12: the large hatched bull-roarer dhooanbooka / yoolundry of the Clarence and Richmond River tribes; the small companion dhalgungun (fig. 13) and the cross-section (fig. 15) appear elsewhere on the same plate. R. H. Mathews, Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales, 1907, Plate 9 figs. 12, 13 & 15 Public domain Image source

dhooanbooka / yoolundry / dhalgungun English

Source term: bull-roarer

dhooanbooka / yoolundry = the large bull-roarer of the Clarence and Richmond River tribes; dhalguñgun = its small companion bull-roarer. "Bora" and "Burbung" are regional names for the male initiation ceremony at which such instruments were swung.

Among the Clarence and Richmond River tribes of northern New South Wales, the surveyor R. H. Mathews recorded a matched pair of initiation bull-roarers: a large one, nearly two feet long, called the dhooanbooka or yoolundry, and a small companion, the dhalguñgun. Both carried the same carving — about half a dozen V-shaped devices running down the rounded face, points aimed toward the broad end, flanked by rows of dots, with a nick cut in the small end to seize the whirling string and a shallow pit and transverse lines on the hollowed back. Mathews placed every instrument on his plate within "the prominent use assigned to the bull-roarer in the initiation ceremonies" of the eastern tribes, and noted that the small dhalguñgun was the exact counterpart of the moonibear — the lesser roarer "sounded at the Burbung ground during the continuance of the ceremonies of initiation."

Fig. 12 represents the dhooanbooka or yoolundry, the bull-roarer in use among the Clarence and Richmond River tribes and those of adjacent districts.

Mathews 1898, "Bull-roarers used by the Australian Aborigines," Journal of the Anthropological Institute 27:52-60 (= Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales, 1907)
Function
Large and small bullroarers used among the Clarence, Richmond, and adjacent districts; Mathews describes carved markings and string attachment.
Map confidence
medium - representative coordinate for named people, ceremony, river, or region in Mathews
Source location
JAI 27:52-60; Plate figs. 12-13 (with 15); initiation framing in section opening; moonibear/Burbung equivalence

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