MONTAGUE1921-002 - museum specimen
Kookynie district initiation bullroarer
Kookynie district - Goldfields-Esperance, Western Australia - Oceania - Sahul
Sacred / spirit
Source term: bull-roarer
The second blade on Montague's 1921 plate came from the Kookynie district, in the goldfields country of Western Australia. At 22 inches it ran an inch longer than its Wiluna companion but narrower, its pale wood cut with a longitudinally concave face and roughly grooved into diminishing squares divided by transverse cuts. Montague paired it as the second of two bullroarers he identified as used in initiation ceremonies, naming neither its maker nor its people.
No. 2 from the Kookynie district, Western Australia.
Montague 1921:36
- Object
- Light-colored wooden blade, 22 inches long and narrower than the Wiluna example, with a longitudinally concave face and rough grooved diminishing-square decoration divided by transverse grooves; one terminal perforation is visible in the exact Figure 19 drawing.
- Function
- Montague's Figure 19 caption identifies it as used in initiation ceremonies; no people-specific rite or restriction is described.
- Map confidence
- medium - Kookynie town anchor for Montague's broader Kookynie district provenance; no collection spot, maker, or performance site is recorded.
- Source location
Page references
printed pp. 36-37; Figure 19 no. 2
- Initiation rite