The Tsjurunga or Churinga Docs:Part 2 offerd concept by Madrason

 The Tsjurunga or Churinga Docs:Part 2:

Many artistic activities of the aborigines have a religious or magical background. This applies to some rock paintings and engravings, and also to decorated weapons. But beside these, there are sacred objects made especially for use during ceremonies. Some of these, such as the churingas and
bullroarers of Central Australia, the dancing boards, ceremonial tablets, and the rangga carved figures, are very ancient, and have been handed down from generation to generation for an unknown length of time. Other ceremonial objects are made and used for one ritual only and are
afterwards destroyed or discarded.Many of these lovingly made and decorated objects have intricate patterns and are artistically of a
high order.

Churingas
A churinga (of Central Australia) is a very sacred object which represents the ancestral and the individual spirit of its owner. Each tribe is divided into totems related to animals, plants or objects,and the legends and relationship of each totemic group are recorded on the churingas. The churingais an oval or elongated slab or stone or wood which can be either rounded or pointed at both ends.
The size of the smallest churinga is only one inch, but large stone ones may be about three feet long, while those from Western Australia are chiefly made from wood and vary considerably in size,some of them reaching a length of seventeen feet. The large ones are known as, dancing-boards.
Some Central Australian wooden churingas have a small hole drilled through one end, and if a string is fastened through it they can be whirled round. They produce a loud humming sound which the women believe to be the voice of a dangerous spirit. These churingas are called bullroarers.
Many churingas are manufactured with great care and patience, and beautiful highly conventionalized designs are engraved on them by means of possum teeth. The churingas are sacred, and they can be seen only by initiated men during the time of ceremony. At other times they are carefully wrapped in bark or skins and hidden in sacred places. Women and children are not
allowed to see them, and the breaking of this rule is punishable by death or blinding. The churingas are known to exist in many parts of Australia, but the finest decorated stone ones come from Central Australia. Conventionalized designs on these record legends, and the various symbols will help the
man who knows the legend to recite it correctly. This is well shown in the British Museum on a churinga of the grasshopper totem of the Ngalia tribe from Central Australia.

 The symbols are explained on the churinga and referred to while the story is told. The meaning of the design on this one is: At a place called Ngapatjimbi (1) there were a number of grasshoppers.
They came out of the ground, and flew up, and coming down they went into the ground again. The grasshoppers multiplied, and after the next rain they came out of the places marked (2). They flew up and came down as men. These men went to Wantangara (3), and going into a cave, turned into churingas.

On this particular churinga (first pictures)the bands of parallel lines linking circles represent the paths the grasshoppers made by breaking down leaves. Pairs of lines represent their tracks.
Meanings of symbols vary. For instance, the most frequently used pattern of concentric circles may represent a water-hole, fruit, a tree, a grass-seed cake, a locality, a rat's nest, or the body of a spider.
Another typical symbol, the U-shaped curve, may represent a resting-place or men sitting down.
Markings on churingas from Central Australia have hundreds of different and definite meanings, yet the number of conventionalized symbols or patterns is relatively small. Some of them, illustrated from specimens in the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Cambridge University, are shown in Fig. 55.

Tip: read the book: Die Lehrenden Steine des Verschwunden Stammes
aboriginal art abroad, PTY ltd.Edward Pappelendam


http://www.australien-lifestyle.de/page/shop/browse/category_id/68bb975f7c4082d17c153a579a284927

Ein seltenes Buch mit Abbildungen von geheimen Zeichen der australischen Ureinwohner, fotografiert und veröffentlicht mit der Erlaubnis des Stammes.
Ein Album mit zahlreichen Farbfotos, aufgenommen an den Orten, die von Aborigines noch bewohnt sind, gibt ein Einblick in das reale Leben und in die Symbolik gelebter Weisheit, die in gekritzelten Steinen, wie in unseren Büchern, seit Generationen weitergegeben wird.
Die Texte zu den Bildern sind einfach, aber sehr informativ, und geben ein wahres bodenständiges Panoramabild vom Leben des Stammes. Auch Gebrauchsgegenstände und Tiere, mit denen Aborigines zu tun haben, sind vorgestellt.
Die abgebildeten Symbole und lehrende Steine auf dem roten australischen Sand fotografiert, haben tatsächlich eine unheimliche magische Kraft und berauschende Linienästhetik. Aboriginal Culture Abroad, 1988

Aboriginal professional books/ german language.