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Nurtunja. The Nurtunja is an object of sacred significance emblematic like the Waninga of the totem & used only during sacred ceremonies concerned with the totems.
1. Represents the simplest & most usual form. A spear is taken, swathed in grass stalks & there are wound round & round with human hair string (the hair girdle is always used for this purpose). Then with human blood, rings or lines of red & white (or white only sometimes) birds down called undattha are added. Ceremonies in which this is used are called Quabara undattha. The top of the Nurtunja has a tuft of Eagle hawk feathers (rarely owl). The Nurtunja represents the totemic animal or plant and apparently Nurtunjas of exactly the same form will represent a wild cat, or a hakea tree according to the totem with which the ceremony is concerned.
