AMF1879

Title: A message stick from Queensland formerly held in the Mayer Collection of the Liverpool Museum

Description: 532. Shield, club, boomerang, and notched stick, from Queensland [60] Australia. The small notched stick was a message from some natives on an island in Moreton Bay, to whom Mr. Dodds of Humpy Bong had applied for help in crushing sugar cane. The notches on one side represented the number of men that would be sent, those on the other, the number of days they would be sent in. Speaking of these message sticks Mr. Brough-Smythe says :—The Australians, according to the statements made by my correspondents and confirmed by the evidence I have produced, could really send messages, describe the events of a journey, and furnish details of a kin likely to be useful to their friends. It is not without interest and importance that one of their message-sticks should have been produced in a court of justice in Queensland and interpreted by a native trooper." Presented by Mrs. Arthur Morley Francis. 12.5.81.1-4" Gatty, Charles T. 1879. Liverpool Free Public Library, Museum and Gallery of Art: Catalogue of the Mayer Collection. Part I. The Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities. London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co.

Message: «[number] men required in [number] days for crushing sugar cane»

Date Created: 1879

Item type: positive text reference

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: QLD

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Guwar Austlang: E26 - Guwar Glottolog: guwa1244

Notes on linguistic areas: Best estimation is Moreton Island since it is across Moreton Bay from Humpy Bong. Via Chirila this would be Guwar

Institution/Holder file: Mayer Collection of the Liverpool Museum object identifier: 12.5.81.1-4

Media copyright: Mayer Collection of the Liverpool Museum

Media Files:

Data Entry: Piers Kelly