Baiame, Daramulan, and the Bora: Sky‑Law, Initiation, and Myth in SE Australia (Gamilaraay/Wiradjuri)

TL;DR

• In SE Australia, initiation grounds (bora/burbung) are explicitly framed as Baiame’s domain and the conduit of Ancestral Law; early observers recorded idols, earthworks, and ritual paraphernalia dedicated to him and to Daramulan/Tharamulin.¹ Primary attestations: Ridley 1875; Mathews 1895–96; Howitt 1884/1904; Fraser 1883. Sources — Ridley 1875 (AIATSIS PDF); Mathews 1895–96 (Newcastle scans); Howitt 1904 (OA PDF); Fraser 1883 (OA PDF) (accessed 2025-08-10).

• Ridley’s Gamilaraay informants: “The sacred wand was the gift of Baiame. The ground on which the bora is celebrated is Baiame’s ground.”² AIATSIS PDF

• Mathews documented baiame-effigies on bora paths and stated that elders said “Baiamai… presided over the ceremonies of the bora.”³ He adds “they say that Baiamai created them, and gave them the country.”⁴ Mathews scans

• At night the bullroarer sounded as “the voice of Daramulun,” linking the sonic emblem of initiation to the sky-associated being who enforces law.⁵ Mathews scans

• Fraser’s synthesis for NSW tribes characterizes Daramulan as “Lord of the mysteries” and a legislator/protector connected to bora images and sacred rods; he treats the rite as transmission of law from the sky-realm.⁶ Fraser 1883 PDF

“The ground on which the bora is celebrated is Baiame’s ground.” — W. Ridley, Kámilarói, and Other Australian Languages (1875)

Baiame, Daramulan, and the Ritual Polity of the Bora/Burbung

Scope and thesis#

Across Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi/Euahlayi) and Wiradjuri country (broader NSW), nineteenth-century Aboriginal and settler accounts converge on a coherent myth-ritual complex: Baiame (Byamee/Baiamai), a sky-anchored creator and lawgiver, presides over initiation; Daramulan (Daramulun/Tharamulin/Turramulan) functions as the agent and voice of that law during the rite; and the bora/burbung ground itself is consecrated as Baiame’s estate. The rite is not merely a social coming-of-age; it is the medium by which Ancestral Law is transmitted and renewed.

This is not a reconstruction from secondary mythographies; it is explicit in early primary reports:

• Ridley (1875): Baiame commanded the bora, gave the dhurumbulum (sacred wand/bullroarer), and the ground itself is his.² AIATSIS PDF
• Mathews (1895–96): At a Kamilaroi bora he recorded carved figures along the processional path, including a male figure that “represented Baiamai” who “presided” over the ceremonies; elders said Baiame created the people and gave them the country; the bullroarer was sounded as the “voice of Daramulun.”³⁴⁵ Mathews scans
• Fraser (1883) (NSW synthesis drawing on missionaries, magistrates, and Aboriginal correspondents): Daramulan is “Lord of the mysteries,” sitting as legislator and protector at the bora; he mediates knowledge and sanctions.⁶ Fraser 1883 PDF
• Howitt (1884/1904) documents the burbung/bunan complex and the association of the bullroarer as the authoritative sound of the All-Father/son dyad across SE Australia (Wiradjuri, Yuin, Kurnai, etc.).⁷ OA PDF; JSTOR OA mirror

Terminology & variation (brief)#

• Bora (Gamilaraay and many NSW/QLD groups) vs burbung/bunan (Wiradjuri/Yuin);
• Baiame/Byamee/Baiamai (Gamilaraay/Euahlayi, Wiradjuri) as creator-lawgiver;
• Daramulan/Daramulun/Tharamulin/Turramulan as Baiame’s son or close associate;
• Bullroarer (Gamilaraay dhurumbulum; Kurnai tundun; other local names), a men’s restricted instrument and sonic token of authority.²⁷

Primary witnesses, in their own words (≤25‑word excerpts)#

• Ridley (Gamilaraay/Euahlayi, 1875) — “The sacred wand was the gift of Baiame. The ground on which the bora is celebrated is Baiame’s ground.”²
  AIATSIS PDF

• Ridley (Gamilaraay, 1875) — “[Baiame] commanded the people to keep the Bora, and gave them the Dhurumbulum…” (re: elder Billy Murray Bundar).⁸
  AIATSIS PDF

• Mathews (Kamilaroi, 1895) — “This… represented Baiamai, who presides over the ceremonies of the bora.”³
  Mathews scans

• Mathews (Kamilaroi, 1895) — “They say that Baiamai created them, and gave them the country…”⁴
  Mathews scans

• Mathews (Kamilaroi, 1895) — “[A] wooden instrument… is supposed to represent the voice of Daramulun.”⁵
  Mathews scans

• Fraser (NSW, 1883) — “Daramulun… ‘Lord of the mysteries,’… a legislator and protector.”⁶
  Fraser 1883 PDF

• Parker (Euahlayi, 1905) — Byamee is the All‑Father; the boorah is treated with fear and reverence under his sanction (chapters 2, 8–9).
  Project Gutenberg; Archive.org scan

Methodological note: spellings reflect 19th‑century orthographies and local phonologies; each group retains distinct lore and restrictions on disclosure. Where observers generalize, I treat cautiously.

The ritual geography of law: what a bora/burbung looks like (after Mathews; cross-checked with Howitt)#

Mathews’ 1895 Kamilaroi account describes two cleared rings linked by a track, lined with earth sculptures and carved figures. On the larger ring’s path stood a human figure “represent[ing] Baiamai,” plus further symbolism (eagle-hawk nest, sun/moon discs), and, later at night, the bullroarer sounded as “the voice of Daramulun.”³⁵ See also Howitt’s plates and discussions of burbung iconography and the tundun across SE tribes.⁷

Comparison table — features and functions#

Optional astronomical note: a number of bora sites in SE QLD/NSW display preferred orientations; modern analyses propose cosmic alignment hypotheses, cautiously framed (e.g., alignment to Milky Way/Emu in the Sky).⁹ Archaeoastronomy article

Thematic correspondences (myth ↔ rite)#

Provenance & claims (who said what, when)#

Close reading of core sources

Ridley (1875): Baiame’s command, consecrated ground, and the dhurumbulum#

Ridley’s Kámilarói, and Other Australian Languages preserves Kamilaroi elder testimony:

• “The sacred wand was the gift of Baiame. The ground on which the bora is celebrated is Baiame’s ground.”²
• “[Baiame] commanded the people to keep the Bora, and gave them the Dhurumbulum…” (elder Billy Mŭrri Bundar).⁸

The same chapters place Baiame in the sky worrumbul (Milky Way), a grove with abundant good things where the virtuous are welcomed.¹⁰
Source — AIATSIS PDF

Mathews (1895–96): Effigies, pedagogy on the path, and Daramulan’s voice#

Reporting a Kamilaroi bora held near Gundabloui (1894), Mathews describes:

• A human figure cut in the soil beside the path, “represent[ing] Baiamai, who presides over the ceremonies of the bora.”³
• Elders’ doctrine that “Baiamai created them, and gave them the country,” after which he and his consort withdrew.⁴
• Nightly sounding of a wooden instrument “supposed to represent the voice of Daramulun.”⁵

These passages show myth enacted as curriculum: initiates traverse a didactic landscape where iconography and sound instantiate Baiame’s sovereignty and Daramulan’s enforcement.
Source — Mathews scans

Fraser (1883): Daramulan as the juridical intermediary#

Fraser synthesizes NSW materials with bold (sometimes speculative) philology, yet records emic claims:

• He glosses Daramulan as “Lord of the mysteries” and makes him legislator and protector who “sees that all is in order,” directly linking him to bora governance and sacred insignia.⁶
  Source — Fraser 1883 PDF

Howitt (1884/1904): SE Australian initiation complexes#

Howitt’s regional monograph details burbung/bunan among Wiradjuri and neighbors, with extensive treatment of the bullroarer as the authoritative sound of the All‑Father complex and its intermediary:

• On the tundun/bullroarer, he emphasizes its restricted status and the men’s teaching that the sound belongs to a being “more than human,” the instrument standing for the presence/voice of the lawgiver’s agent in the rite (passim).⁷
  Sources — 1904 OA PDF; 1884 article: OA mirror

Optional: cross-checks and extensions#

• Euahlayi All-Father chapters (Parker 1905) give a clear vernacular frame (Byamee/boorah), confirming the sacral gravitas of initiation under the All-Father’s sanction. Project Gutenberg
• Astronomical hypotheses: studies argue some bora grounds align with Milky Way/Emu in the Sky, potentially reflecting the Baiame/Daramulan complex’s skyward vector. These remain suggestive, not universal.⁹ Archaeoastronomy article

Alignment with the Eve Theory of Consciousness (EToC)#

EToC (v3) presents consciousness as an emergent, memetically scaffolded capacity, historically catalyzed by ritual technologies and gendered innovations, with “Eve” signifying the foundational discovery of recursive self‑modeling and its cultural diffusion.¹¹ Vectors of Mind post

How the Baiame–Daramulan–Bora complex maps onto EToC’s claims:

1. Ritual as memetic compiler. The bora/burbung is a performative medium that packages ontology (sky‑law, creator, enforcer) into repeatable, high‑fidelity procedures (iconic ground art, regulated sound, secrecy, staged instruction). This is precisely the kind of memetic technology EToC identifies as scaffolding recursive cognition (rule acquisition about rules). Ridley’s and Mathews’ reports make the transmission function explicit (Baiame commanded the rite; Daramulan’s voice sanctions it).⁸⁵

2. Authority externalization → internalization. The external “voice” (bullroarer/Daramulan) and juridical landscape (Baiame’s ground) are exogenous anchors for norm learning; through initiation, these are internalized as self‑regulating conscience—EToC’s transition from social to inner law. The sonic awe and taboo structure create somatic markers that EToC expects for consolidating recursive self‑monitoring.

3. Sky vectoring of abstraction. Locating law in the sky (Baiame’s worrumbul) offloads normative authority into a remote, universal frame—a precondition for EToC’s shift from kin‑local pragmatics to abstract, cross‑contextual rules (cosmicizing the social contract).¹⁰

4. Death–rebirth pedagogy. The liminal movement between rings, nocturnal ordeals, and the unveiling of restricted knowledge perform the ritual death/rebirth template central to EToC’s model of transformational learning. Howitt/Mathews’ staging aligns with EToC’s predicted “rite‑compiled recursion”: initiates learn how to learn law.

5. Agentic dyad (lawgiver ↔ intermediary). Baiame (law) + Daramulan (voice/enforcement) instantiate the split‑agent architecture EToC expects at the cusp of self‑representation: a meta‑self that legislates and a monitor that enforces—first outside, later inside the person.

Caveats. EToC’s macro‑theorizing is modern and cross‑cultural; the bora complex is locally specific and ethically sensitive. The alignment is heuristic, not a claim that these peoples “invented” consciousness; rather, it shows how ritual infrastructures can stabilize recursive, law‑like cognition, as EToC predicts, without collapsing cultural difference.

FAQ#

Q1. Is Baiame “worshipped” at the bora in the sense of a church service? A. Primary sources use “worship” and “consecrated to Baiame,” but the rite is better read as juridical-pedagogical: a law-transmission event structured by sacred sanctions (Ridley 1875; Mathews 1895). See Ridley 1875 (AIATSIS PDF); Mathews 1895–96 (scans).

Q2. Is Daramulan a “devil”? A. No. Some writers say “dreaded,” but Fraser explicitly casts him as “Lord of the mysteries” and protector/legislator; Mathews ties him to the voice that authorizes initiation. See Fraser 1883 (PDF); Mathews 1895–96 (scans).

Q3. How distinct are Gamilaraay vs Wiradjuri practices? A. Names and choreography vary (bora vs burbung; dhurumbulum vs tundun), but the structural theme—sky-law, consecrated ground, restricted sound, initiatory transmission—recurs across SE groups (Ridley; Howitt; Mathews). Links above.

Footnotes#

Sources#

Primary / near-primary

• Ridley, William. Kámilarói, and Other Australian Languages, with Comparative Tables… and Songs, Traditions, Laws and Customs of the Australian Race. Sydney: T. Richards, 1875. Open-access PDF (AIATSIS): AIATSIS PDF. (See esp. pp. 164–165, 177: Baiame’s ground; command to keep the bora; dhurumbulum; Milky Way worrumbul.)

• Mathews, R. H. “The Bora, or Initiation Ceremonies of the Kamilaroi Tribe” (1895) and “The Bora… (Part II)” (1896). Journal of the Anthropological Institute 24–25. OA scans: Mathews scans. (Effigies of Baiame; statement that he presides; “voice of Daramulun.”)

• Fraser, John. “The Aborigines of New South Wales” (1883). OA PDF: Fraser 1883 PDF. (Daramulan as “Lord of the mysteries,” legislator/protector; notes on bora iconography and insignia.)

• Howitt, A. W. The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. London: Macmillan, 1904. OA PDF: OA PDF. (Initiation/burbung; bullroarer complex across SE tribes.) ———. “On some Australian ceremonies of initiation.” Journal of the Anthropological Institute 13 (1884): 432–459. OA mirror: JSTOR OA mirror.

• Parker, K. Langloh. The Euahlayi Tribe: A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia. London: Constable, 1905. OA text: Project Gutenberg; scan: Archive.org. (Byamee/boorah chapters.)

Secondary / analytic

• Fuller, R. S., Hamacher, D. W., & Norris, R. P. “Astronomical orientations of bora ceremonial grounds in SE Queensland and NE NSW.” Archaeoastronomy (Cambridge), 2013. Article.

• Leaman, T. & Hamacher, D. “Baiami and the Emu Chase: an astronomical interpretation of a Wiradjuri Dreaming associated with the burbung.” 2019. OA PDF: PDF.

Theory for alignment

• Cutler, Andrew. “Eve Theory of Consciousness (v3).” Vectors of Mind, 2023. Vectors of Mind post.