No. MONTAGUE1921-001
Wiluna initiation bullroarer
Wiluna · Mid West, Western Australia
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
This dark, ochre-stained blade from Wiluna, on the Western Australian goldfields, is carved the full twenty-one inches with an interlocking chevron pattern — an echo, Montague noted, of the incised spear-throwers of Kookynie — and is one of two he labelled as instruments of initiation.
The first is 21 inches long, and might at first sight be taken for a small shield.
Montague 1921:36
Particulars
- Object
- Carved wooden blade, 21 inches long, stained dark brown with ochre and pierced at one end for its cord.
- Function
- Used in initiation ceremonies.
Source
Leopold A. D. Montague, Weapons and Implements of Savage Races (London, 1921), p. 36, fig. 19 no. 1