MUS2026-163 - museum specimen
Fitzroy River painted wood bullroarer
Australia - Kimberley - Fitzroy River - Oceania - Sahul
Restricted
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
Page references
SMVK 1912.01.1024; general catalog p. 246