The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-163 - museum specimen

Fitzroy River (people unrecorded)

Australia - Kimberley - Fitzroy River - Oceania - Sahul

Restricted

Representative—not this record’s object: Gascoyne bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available...
Representative—not this record’s object: Gascoyne bullroarer, shown as a regional stand-in; no image of this record’s own object is available yet. W. D. Hambly, Primitive Hunters of Australia (Field Museum of Natural History, 1936), plate I, fig. 10 Public domain Image source
Western Australia, Giglioli 1886. The entire historical page is shown; object 3 is handwritten Mooryumkarr, probably the Gascoyne-mouth...
Western Australia, Giglioli 1886. The entire historical page is shown; object 3 is handwritten Mooryumkarr, probably the Gascoyne-mouth spirit-chaser later described by Pettazzoni. Enrico H. Giglioli, Western Australian objects at the Colonial Exhibition, London (1886) Public domain Image source

Source term: vinare / bullroarer

vinare: Swedish catalog term for a bullroarer; not an Indigenous name

A small red-painted bullroarer left the Fitzroy River in 1910 with Eric Mjöberg's Swedish expedition — fourteen centimetres of carved, once-painted wood, its cord now lost. The Stockholm museum that keeps it now treats it as secret and sacred and withholds its photograph; the river is the only thing about it not held close.

Vinare, "Bullroarer" försedd med enkel ornering. Varit målad. Fitzroy River.

Bullroarer furnished with simple ornament. Formerly painted. Fitzroy River.

SMVK general catalog 1912.01, p. 246
Object
Small red-painted carved wooden bullroarer, simply ornamented, 14.8 x 2.8 x 0.7 cm; cord now missing.
Function
Identified as secret/sacred in the museum record; no ceremony or particular use is recorded.
Map confidence
medium - Fitzroy Crossing regional anchor for river-level Kimberley provenance; not a collection or performance site.
Source location
SMVK 1912.01.1024; general catalog p. 246

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