SAMA2026-003 - ethnographic attestation
Spinning at MacDonald Downs, 1980
Australia - MacDonald Downs - Oceania - Sahul
Function not recorded
Source term: bullroarer
No local term recorded.
Most bullroarers reach an archive as a still blade on a tray. This one reaches it mid-swing: a photograph taken at MacDonald Downs station in Central Australia in August 1980 shows a man spinning one. The only words attached are handwritten on the back — 'Spinning bullroarer Macdonald Downs Aug 1980' — and the print sits among Norman Tindale's papers under the heading 'Tjurunga and Bullroarers.' Who the man was, and what he was sounding it for, nobody wrote down.
Spinning bullroarer Macdonald Downs Aug 1980
SA Museum, Tindale AA338/14/398, reverse-caption transcription
- Object
- A 1980 action photograph of a man spinning a bullroarer at MacDonald Downs station, Central Australia; the instrument itself is not described.
- Function
- Not recorded.
- Source
- South Australian Museum, Norman Tindale AA338/14/398, 'Tjurunga and Bullroarers'
- Source location
Page references
exact archive item AA338/14/398; reverse-caption transcription
- Source confidence
- medium MacDonald Downs homestead/station anchor; the photograph caption does not give a finer point.