The Bullroarer Atlas

RAPPAPORT1999-001 - ethnographic attestation

Warlpiri / Walbiri

Central Australia - Tanami Desert - Warlpiri country

Restricted

Six Northern Territory sacred bull-roarers from Spencer's Plate II: two plain dark kunapippi of the Nullakun, a pair of incised bidu-bidu of...
Representative image. Six Northern Territory sacred bull-roarers from Spencer's Plate II: two plain dark kunapippi of the Nullakun, a pair of incised bidu-bidu of the Larakia with their cords, and two dotted kunapippi of the Mungarai. Shown to illustrate the type; not this Warlpiri entry's object. Spencer, Native Tribes of the Northern Territory (Macmillan, 1914), Plate II Public domain Image source

Gadjari English

Source term: bullroarers

Gadjari (also Gadjeri/Kajirri): the name of the ritual cycle and "Big Sunday" initiation complex itself, not a word for the bullroarer; the rites are built on the myth of the Mamandabari heroes.

In the Warlpiri telling, the bullroarer came from the Mamandabari, two male Dreaming heroes who rose out of the ground in the north and walked southward across the Tanami country, founding as they went the circumcision rites, the raising of sacred poles, the digging of ritual pits, and the use of fire. M. J. Meggitt, who worked among the Warlpiri at Hooker Creek (Lajamanu) in the 1950s, translated the long Mamandabari myth and set out the meaning of the incised designs carried on the bullroarers, which encode the heroes' route and the order of the rite. The whole complex is classed as Gadjari, the "Big Sunday," staged yearly and forbidden to women, with novices held in seclusion. Three decorated Warlpiri wooden bull-roarers from Ali Curung and Yuendumu, collected in the late 1960s, are now held in the Royal Museum for Central Africa at Tervuren.

Mamandabari (the name of dreamtime heroes whose exploits provide the rationale of the Gadjari rituals), translation of the myth, and symbols shown on bullroarers with explanation

National Library of Australia catalogue summary, M. J. Meggitt, Gadjari among the Walbiri Aborigines of Central Australia (Oceania Monograph 14, 1966)
Object
Incised bullroarers in the Gadjari/Mamandabari ritual-myth sequence; AfricaMuseum/RMCA also records three decorated Warlpiri wooden bull-roarers from Ali Curung and Yuendumu (MO.1969.34.4, MO.1969.34.5, MO.1969.34.6).
Function
Rappaport's discussion of Walbiri/Warlpiri Gadjari rituals describes Mamandabari heroes fashioning and swinging incised bullroarers that encode the ritual track, ceremonial grounds, participants, and sacred order.
Map confidence
medium - Representative central Warlpiri/Yuendumu public anchor; Rappaport describes a Gadjari track across Warlpiri territory, not a single public ritual site.
Source location
Rappaport 1999 pp. 159-160, 213-214; RMCA MO.1969.34.4, MO.1969.34.5, MO.1969.34.6

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