Wainwright Iñupiaq Imigluktaaq bullroarer

Imigluktaaq

Source term: Bull Roarer

Imigluktaaq: Iñupiaq name paired by the Burke Museum with 'Bull Roarer'.

At Ulġuniq, the Iñupiaq name for Wainwright, life moves between the Chukchi Sea and the tundra. Families hunt bowhead whales and caribou, while seasonal camps follow waterfowl and fish; a successful whale is shared through the community and celebrated at Nalukataq. The imigluktaaq packs its roar into a blade only six inches long—cut from baleen rather than wood and swung from a single cord. At Point Barrow, a hundred miles up the coast, John Murdoch knew this instrument as "purely a child's toy"; he never saw one in the hands of an adult.

Imigluktaaq, Bull Roarer

Burke Museum Arts & Cultures Collections Database, object 2004-92/84.

Particulars

Object

Six-by-one-and-a-half-inch baleen blade with a single attachment point and cord; Burke Museum 2004-92/84.

Function

A child's toy on the North Slope.