MATHEWS1900-001 - ethnographic attestation

Tjungundji (Mathews's Joonkoonjee) and neighbouring western Cape York tribes

Australia - Western Cape York Peninsula - Batavia (Wenlock) River - Oceania - Sahul

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On western Cape York a youth's making stretched over years: at not less than three great meetings of the tribes, scars were raised on his body, his septum pierced, and a front tooth punched out. At these gatherings sounded the pipe-ra-chy — a bloodwood blade sixteen to twenty inches long, a long string run through a hole at its smaller end, swung round the operator's head, its sides often barred with red ochre. Until he had graduated through it all, a man could not take a wife or sit in the councils of the men. Mathews knew the ceremonies best among the Tjungundji of the Batavia River, near Mapoon.

A 'bullroarer,' called by the natives pipe-ra-chy, is used by the tribes on these occasions; it is generally made of bloodwood, of the usual shape, with a hole drilled in the smaller end, through which a long string is fastened, to enable the operator to swing it round his head.

R. H. Mathews, 'Marriage and Descent among the Australian Aborigines,' Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 34 (1900), p. 134

Object

Generally of bloodwood, of the usual shape, sixteen to twenty inches long, with a hole drilled in the smaller end carrying a long string; often ornamented with one longitudinal and several transverse bars of red ochre on one or both sides.

Function

Swung round the operator's head at the inaugural (initiation) ceremonies, in which youths are scarred, nose-pierced, and have a front tooth punched out over at least three tribal meetings.

Map confidence

high - Mapoon / Batavia (Wenlock) River anchor — Mathews's best-documented Joonkoonjee (Tjungundji) locality; the attestation covers a cluster of ten named western Cape York tribes.

Source location

printed p. 134 (appendix pp. 131-135)

• Initiation rite

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