The Bullroarer Atlas

MUS2026-370 - museum specimen

Jay Creek tjuringa of 1953

Jay Creek (Iwupataka), MacDonnell Ranges, west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory - Central Australia

Restricted

Spencer and Gillen's wooden churinga; figure 2 is a Luritja one.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Spencer and Gillen's wooden churinga; figure 2 is a Luritja one. · Public domain Image source

tjuringa

Source term: svingtræ

tjuringa: the Central Australian sacred board; the museum's Danish svingtræ means "swing-wood".

In June 1953 a group of Luritja boys at Jay Creek, in the ranges west of Alice Springs, were circumcised and, later, subincised, and an outsider was allowed to watch: John Irex, a Hungarian-born dealer in surgical instruments, circumcision tools among them. What he carried away stayed together. There is a small pointed stick with which the men pierced their own cut organs, letting the blood drip onto the celebrants so that feathers could be stuck to their bodies, and there is this tjuringa, thirty-five centimetres of wood on an eighty-centimetre cord of human hair. Half a century earlier Spencer and Gillen were told that among the Luritja only one bullroarer spoke at initiation, and that it stood for a male spirit.

amongst the Arunta, Ilpirra and Luritcha there is only one, and that represents the male spirit.

Baldwin Spencer & F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899), p. 246 n. 1
Object
Wooden bullroarer, 35 x 5 cm, on an 80 cm cord of human hair; kept with the objects from a June 1953 Luritja circumcision and subincision at Jay Creek, among them the small pointed stick (I.7169) used in the operation.
Function
Preserved with the equipment of a June 1953 Luritja circumcision and subincision at Jay Creek; its own part in that rite is not recorded. Among the Luritja only one bullroarer sounded at initiation, standing for a male spirit (Spencer and Gillen 1899, p. 246 n. 1).
Source
Nationalmuseet, Etnografisk Samling, I.7025 (object 102548), "svingtræ"; wood 35 x 5 cm, human-hair cord 80 cm; Loritja, Northern Territory, collected 1953; belongs with I.7158-I.7169, objects from a circumcision ritual witnessed by John Irex in 1953. Associated record I.7169 (object 123358): Loritja, Jay Creek, Alice Springs, June 1953; collector John…
Source location
Page references

I.7025 (object 102548); associated set I.7158-I.7169 (I.7169 = object 123358)

Source confidence
medium to high
Location note
Jay Creek (Iwupataka) settlement, NT Place Names Register coordinate; the locality named in the associated museum record.

Regions: Australia · Sahul

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  • Arunta churinga bullroarer complexAustralia - MacDonnell Ranges / Alice Springs region - Restricted
  • Iliaura (Alyawarre)Australia - Upper Sandover River region, north-east of the MacDonnell Ranges, Northern Territory (Iliaura/Alyawarre country, immediately north of the Arunta) - Restricted
  • Kaitish (Kaytetye)Australia - Sandover / Barrow Creek region - Restricted
  • Matuntara (Kukata)Australia - Matuntara (Kukata) country south of the Levi Range, around the Palmer River tributary of the Finke River, eastward to Erldunda and westward to Curtin Springs, straddling the Northern Territory / South Australia border - Restricted
  • Mularatara (Matuntara)Australia - Southern Western Desert: Palmer River country south of the Levi Range, east to Erldunda and west to Curtin Springs, extending across the Northern Territory border into northern South Australia - Restricted
  • Warumungu Tennant Creek murtu-murtu initiation bullroarerAustralia - Tennant Creek district, Northern Territory - Restricted