AMus_E013420

Title: A message stick held in the Australian Museum

Description: Message or letter stick [ref reg]; Message stick [ref LC] Message stick, wooden, bi-convex section, incisions on both surfaces [ref LC]; Condition: Complete [ref LC].

Part of an illustration to a fictional series in the Brisbane Telegraph featuring the adventures of Captain Coldweather, Tom Barnacle, Mrs Noah and Bosun Bill. It is likely that this artefact is from the collection of W.E. Roth, who is cited. Two other artefacts in the same photograph can be positively traced to Roth's collection as illustrated in Roth's 'Ethnological studies among the north-west-central Queensland Aborigines' (1897). The images two artefacts have been merged with the records derived from Roth (1897).

The same message stick is sketched in fig. 3 on p. 345 (fig. 3) of Amalie Maria Frank's "Botenstäbe in Australien" (1940).

Date Created: 1903

Notes on date created: Absolute date of collection

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: QLD

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Yinjilanji Austlang: G14 - Indjilandji Glottolog: yind1248

Notes on linguistic areas: Traditional owners inferred from geography. The origin of the message stick is Barclay Downs, Channel Country, Queensland. AMus pdf from 24.01.2023: "REGION: Channel Country; Barclay Downs [ref reg]; Barclay Downs, Queensland [ref LC]; Barclay Downs, near Camooweal, W. Queensland. (ref SC)"

Cultural region: Channel Country

Dimension 1: 150mm Dimension 2: 20mm

Sources:

1935 'PRIMITIVE LETTERS', The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), 31 August, p. 16. (LATEST FINAL CABLES), viewed 19 Aug 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article180628845

Frank, Maria. 1940. "Botenstäbe in Australien."

Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 72 (4/6): 328-352.

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Acquisition date: 1903 Accession date: 24 March 1905

Institution/Holder file: The Australian Museum object identifier: E013420

Collector: Purchased by: Roth, Dr Walter Edmund

Coordinates: 20°28'1.401600"S,138°28'0.400800"E  (-20.467056, 138.466778)

Media copyright: The Australian Museum

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Barkly Downs, Queensland, per Google maps. Bonzle: Barkly Downs is a homestead in west Queensland. The nearest more populous place is the village of Camooweal which is 70km away. Barclay Downs = Barkly Downs?

URL institution: http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/Display.php?irn=5612&QueryPage=%2Famweb%2Fpages%2Fam%2FQuery.php&highlight_term=message+stick

URL source 1: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article180628845

Notes: REGISTER

Date: March 24, 1905

Consecutive number: 13420

Name or Description: Message or Letter stick

Locality: Barclay Downs, 1903

How Acquired: Purch.

Name of Donor or Seller: Dr. W. E. Roth

Estimated or Market Value: S.53

Destination:FigS Bull.8. Pl3 F6, Neg. V. 2341

Remarks:

OTHER NOTES

09.07.2024 PK: Merged with MF1940F03P345, image reproduced in 'Primitive Letters' (1935) and Amalia Frank sketch.

Roth Bulletin 8 (1905):

Fig. 6.—Bâton-shaped, compressed, bi-convex, edges sharp, the proximal end handle-shaped, the distal excavate or fish-tail shaped. Obverse—The upper centre is occupied by a heart-shaped flower on a stalk with two leaves and above it a panel occupied by a “St. Andrew’s cross” of several lines; from the “flower” downwards are V-shaped incisions forming a herring-bone pattern. Reverse—Is occupied by a longitudinal festoon figure, the terminal portions of three incisions, one within the other, the two central loops of the festoon of four. Length, 6 in. breadth, ¾ in.

Barclay Downs.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman