Kulgera Rainbow Serpent churinga

Source term: Churinga (bullroarer)

A wooden churinga carries the Rainbow Serpent and its eggs cut into its face, found at the southern edge of the country where churinga occur. It was collected before entering Cambridge in 1952. Churinga carry a totemic ancestor's own design, forbidden to women and uninitiated boys and shown in full only to initiated elders; some examples, pierced and corded, were whirled to sound as 'spirit talk'. A note of 1993 admits the museum no longer knows which shelf it sits on.

Churinga with design depicting, inter alia, the Rainbow Serpent and eggs. Those with a hole bored in one end (stone ones excepted), for the attachment of a cord, are called bullroarers. When whirled round, they produce a characteristic sound believed to be "spirit talk"

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, catalogue description for accession 1952.396

Particulars

Object

A wooden churinga carved with designs that include the Rainbow Serpent and eggs, recorded as found at the southern edge of the country where churinga occur.

Function

Forbidden to women and uninitiated boys; its meaning was revealed in full only to initiated elders of its totem.