Stone Churinga
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Jan 2002
name: label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Francis M. Hueber
notes: label: Notes
content: A flat, oval-shaped stone. Both sides were smoothed, incised with design, and rubbed with red ochre/ocher. The design is slightly different on each side, but generally consists of several spirals, connected with straight parallel lines. Ocher has worn away slightly, revealing minor scratches and the black color of the stone.
label: Notes
content: According to the donor: "[Originally] collected late 1800's [though purchased by Hueber in 1967]...The concentric circles represent the large gum trees which grow by the side of the Hugh River at Emanda, the center of the frog totem group to which the owner belonged. These trees were intimately associated with the frog totem because frogs are supposed to come out of them. The Unchichera (frog) totem people of Emanda are closely associated locally with the Achilpa people of Emanda. Various ceremonies are done and each one associated with some particular ancestor and place...this ceremony is called the Quabara Unchichera Emanda, i.e. a ceremony of the frog totem of Emanda."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 14 Mar 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Hugh River, Northern Territory, Australia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Aboriginal Australian
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2022279
label: USNM Number
content: E430808-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Churinga
physicalDescription: label: Width - Object
content: 11.8 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 20.7 cm
label: Height - Object
content: ca. 1.5 cm