neric in anthropological literature and is used to identify a
wide variety of Australian Aboriginal religious objects. (The
term tjurunga also has by now generally replaced the term
churinga in anthropological writing.) The term covers a wide
variety of meanings and can refer not only to the stone and
wooden objects to which it was originally restricted but also
to bullroarers, ground paintings, ritual poles, headgear, and
religious songs (Strehlow, 1947, pp. 84ff.).
Tjurungas and tjurunga-type objects are widely distrib-
uted throughout central, southern, and western Australia, as
well as the Northern Territory. They are usually secret-sacred
and may be viewed only by initiated men, although in some
cases women too possess religious boards. In all cases, tjurun-
gas are closely associated with the mythic and totemic beings
of the Dreaming. In the beginning, these beings shaped the
physiographic features of the Aboriginal countryside and
were, ultimately, responsible for creating human beings, who
are regarded as their spiritual descendants. They also estab-
lished particular Aboriginal social orders and were especially
responsible for instituting religious ritual. The Dreaming
characters are believed to be as alive today, spiritually, as they
were in the past, and their significance continues. It is
through the sacred objects that they live on in spiritual form.
Tjurungas are often considered to represent particular mythic
beings, and their engraved designs to represent specific locali-
ties and the activities associated with them; some tjurungas,
however, are undecorated.
Stone tjurungas are flat oval platters that vary in size
from nine to more than fifty centimeters in length and that,
for the most part, are engraved on both sides. Smaller wood-
en objects are similarly decorated, but they are lenticular in
cross section and elongated with rounded ends. Larger
boards, between two and three meters in length, are made
from tree-trunk sections; they are flat or slightly concave on
the incised side and convex on the reverse. Traditionally, the
lower incisor of a wallaby’s jaw was used to engrave both
stone and wooden tjurungas, but today steel rasps are used
to shape the basic form and chisels to make the design. The
act of incising the tjurunga is accompanied by songs relevant
to the mythological associations of the pattern being made
and is itself a ritual act. The knowledge of such songs is held
by members of particular local groups, which have the re-
sponsibility of maintaining and reproducing the range of em-
blems and the designs connected with their own territories.
Cognate groups collaborate with them in a complex pattern-
ing of ritual information between members of a number of
similarly constituted social groups.
Tjurungas have a profound religious significance in con-
temporary desert Aboriginal cultures. Decorated with incised
meandering lines, concentric circles, cross-hatching, zigzags,
and, more rarely, naturalistic designs of bird and animal foot-
prints and stylized human figures, they represent a compact
and conventionalized statement of land occupation, utiliza-
tion, and ownership, seen in terms of specific areas of land
associated with particular mythic beings who in turn have
their living representatives today. Beliefs about the origin of
tjurungas vary according to culture (Davidson, 1953; Stre-
hlow, 1964). Basically, though, it is believed that tjurungas
were either created by mythic beings or represent tangible as-
pects of their bodies or something directly associated with
them. In virtually all cases a tjurunga served as a vehicle in
which resided part of a mythic being’s spiritual essence.
Some stone tjurungas, particularly those with well-worn de-
signs or those having none, are regarded as the actual meta-
morphoses of mythic beings and may be ritually relevant to
several sociodialectal groups. Usually, however, a tjurunga is
personal; it is connected with both men and women and is
symbolic of their mythic associations: men look after those
belonging to the women of their own local group. As far as
men are concerned, tjurungas play an important part in con-
ception, initiation, and death.While the Aranda may manufacture stone tjurungas, en-
suring that male members of the oncoming generation pos-
sess such objects, they basically replicate the older ones ac-
cording to their particular mythic and topographic type—
that is, new tjurungas must correspond with those
concerning the place of a person’s conception and/or local
group. In the Western Desert, Aborigines believe that all
stone tjurungas are of supernatural origin, and these groups
manufacture only wooden sacred boards. Small wooden
boards or bull-roarers are made and presented to a novice
during the final stages of his initiation; they signify his accep-
tance into the religious life of his people. It is only some years
after a man’s first initiation that he is introduced to the
tjurungas of his own group. Later, he may prepare and incise
such examples, either alone or in the company of close kin
who share the same mythological associations.
The designs that appear on these religious objects are
similar to those on spear-throwers, some shields, pearl-shell
pendants, and a variety of head ornaments (all of which are
used or worn publicly in contrast to the actual ritual objects).
Clearly the form of an object and its purpose, rather than the
design, indicate whether or not the item is to be regarded as
open-sacred or secret-sacred (Berndt, Berndt, and Stanton,
1982, pp. 114–116). The designs depict, through a repetitive
but symbolic structure, a particular segment of territory
linked to an artist, his mythological connection with it, and
some of the physiographic features that characterize this area
of land. Moreover, this is usually shown looking from above
rather than horizontally from the ground level. This is be-
cause mythic beings saw the land in this way. Some Western
Desert Aborigines believe that the spirits of men who live a
far distance from their own country travel through the sky
on their sacred boards during sleep, and they, too, see the
country in that way.
The same designs that appear on tjurungas are also re-
produced in ochers on the bodies of participants in rituals.
Depending on the area and the particular ritual being per-
formed, ground structures of furrows and mounds have
blood and red ocher superimposed on them and are decorat-9212 TJURUNGAS