Bullroarer- Aboriginal Australian ArtifactArtifact
Also known as: Mudji and Turndun
Description
A flat piece of carved wood on a cord that, when swung through the air, produces a deep roar heard across the bush. To the uninitiated, this is the voice of Baiame or Daramulum. To learn what truly makes the sound — and to understand that knowing makes it no less sacred — is part of becoming a man.
Mythology & Lore
The Sound in the Air
The bullroarer is a flat piece of carved wood, oval or elongated, attached to a cord. When swung in a circle through the air it produces a deep, resonant roar that carries over great distances. Many bear incised designs encoding sacred knowledge accessible only to those with proper initiation. Like tjurunga, bullroarers are stored in secret, handled only by authorized men, and revealed only during ceremony.
The size and shape vary between traditions. Some are small enough to conceal in one hand. Others are large and produce a thunderous drone. In southeastern traditions, the sound is identified as the voice of Baiame or his son Daramulum. The sound is not something the instrument merely produces. It is the voice itself, the ancestral being made audible.
What the Initiated Know
Before initiation, boys and women are told that the roar comes from a spirit whose presence at the ceremony is powerful and dangerous. One of the revelations of initiation is the bullroarer's true nature: a physical object operated by men. But this knowledge does not diminish the sacred. When used in the correct ceremonial context by those with proper authority, the instrument genuinely becomes the voice it was always said to be. The boy learns not that the mystery was a trick, but that the truth runs deeper than he thought.
Women and uninitiated boys are forbidden from seeing the bullroarer under the strictest prohibitions of sacred law. They hear its sound during ceremonies but never its source.
Relationships
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