| Coordinates WGS84 | 28°57'S, 146°37'E -28.95, 146.62 |
AMus_E032197
Title: A message stick sent by Nani in Goodooga to Pilay at Tinnenburra to coordinate a ceremony at Cudnapper creek
Description: Message stick holder: The Australian Museum; Sketch of message stick on p. 293 of "Message-sticks used by the Aborigines of Australia" by Robert Hamilton Mathews AMus spreadsheet Oct 2022: " E032197 [on display] 25 Jan 1929 message stick COMMUNICATION & MEDIA Australia Queensland Queensland?, pencil attrib. [ref reg] Donation Mathews, Miss G" Mathews 1897, p293: "The message-stick here represented is made of the wood of the cuttibundi tree, known to white men as quinine or Peruvian bark. Its length is six inches and an eighth, its breadth a little over three inches, and its thickness slightly exceeding three-eighths of an inch."
Message: When handing the stick to Belay, Imball told him that Nanee and his tribe wished to meet him (Belay) and his tribe on the Cudnappa river for the purpose of holding a corroboree. Imnball further explained to Belay the devices on the stick as follows, which will be better understood by referring to plate VII: Nanee (a) sent the message from the Bokhara river (b), by the hand of Imball (c), via the Birie (d), the Culgoa (e), and Cudnappa (f) rivers, to Belay (g); that the stick was dispatched at new moon (h), and Belay and his tribe are expected to be at Cudnappa river (f) at full moon (i); (j) represents a corroboree ground, and Belay understands from it that Nanee and his tribe are corroboreeing at the Bokhara river, which is their taorai, and, further, that on the meeting of the two tribes at full moon on the Cudnappa river a big corroboree will be held. The messenger, Imball, is shown standing beside Belay, which conveys the meaning that he will remain with the latter until he and his tribe are ready to start for the place of meeting, and that he, the messenger, will accompany them thither. The route taken by Imball in going from Goodooga to Tinanburra is shown at (k). (p. 293)
Creator of Object: Sender: "Nanee, Kumbo Kangaroo, a head-man of the Culgoa tribe" (p. 293) Recipient: "Belay, Kubbi Iguana, one of the head-men of the Tinanburra tribe" (p. 293)
Date Created: 1897
Notes on date created: terminus ante quem
Item type: message stick in a collection
Subtype: traditional
State/Territory: NSW/QLD
Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Muruwari Austlang: D32 - MURUWARI / MURRAWARRI Glottolog: muru1266
Linguistic area 2: Chirila: Muruwari Austlang: D32 - MURUWARI / MURRAWARRI Glottolog: muru1266
Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Goodooga on the Bohkhara river. The message stick is associated with the "Goodooga, on the Bokhara river, New South Wales", sent to "Belay at Tinanburra, on the Cuttaburra river, Queensland" (p. 293) "Culgoa tribe" presumably refers to the people living on the Culgoa river, namely the Muruwari. Goodooga, the place it was manufactured, is also within the Muruwari area. The 'Tinanburra tribe' is possible also a division of Muruwari since Tinnenburra station was on the border between Muruwari, Badjiri, Gunu and Baridji.
Semantic domains: sd_activity_accompany, sd_activity_stay, sd_activity_travel, sd_ceremony, sd_journey, sd_journey_route, sd_person_recipient, sd_person_sender, sd_place, sd_place_lawground, sd_place_river, sd_request_invitation_ceremony, sd_time_moon
Materials: cuttibundi, peruvian bark, quinine
Sources:
Source types: museum collection, text source
Date collected: Registration Date: 25/1/1929
Institution/Holder file: The Australian Museum object identifier: E032197
Collector: I obtained the message-sticks and all the details respecting them from Mr James E. Miller, a police trooper stationed at Goodooga township. He has been traveling through that district in the discharge of his official duties for some years past and is well acquainted with the numerous aboriginal population, who still preserve their ancient customs. (p.292)
Coordinates: 28°56'52.332000"S,146°37'9.804000"E (-28.94787, 146.61939)
Media copyright: The Australian Museum
Notes on coordinates: Chirila centroid coordinates for Muruwari
URL institution: http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/Display.php?irn=2833&QueryPage=%2Famweb%2Fpages%2Fam%2FAdvQuery.php&highlight_term=
Notes: PK: For the purposes of mapping, here are the relevant places and their coordinates. Goodooga on the Bokhara River [Nanee hands the message stick to Imball, p293]: 29°06'51.8"S 147°27'10.1"E Imbal then takes the message stick via the following rivers: Birie: Culgoa: Cudnappa: to Belay at Tinanburra [Tinnenburra] on the Cuttaburra river [p293]: 28°44'24.0"S 145°31'07.7"E The message itself concerns a ceremony on the Cudnappa River: For decent map of the rivers see: Commonwealth Environmental Water Office. 2020-2021. "Water Management Plan: Chapter 3.2 – Condamine-Balonne." For the location of Cudnappa: "Mr GJ and Mrs J Webster are the registered owners of land described as Lot 4 NO40:GHFL15/1676, Parish of Belar, containing 13,088 ha, situated about 80 km south- east of Cunnamulla. This block is known individually as 'Cudnappa' but forms part of a family aggregation known as 'Mitchell Plains'. [...] The grounds of appeal were wide but included several specific issues as set out below: [...] We have a bitumen road through the property, but the Cudnapper Creek cuts our access after rain. [...]" —Webster v Department of Natural Resources and Mines [2003] QLC 0053 PK emailed Joey Clarke of Australian Wildlife organisation to get contact details for Bowra sanctuary on 4 August 2021 PK requested access to original Australian Museum registers on 29 Nov 2021. Vanessa Finney responded on 3 Dec 2021 requesting more project information. On 6 Dec 2021 PK contacted MS at Australian Museum to arrange a meeting about the object with Lorina Barker. MS contributed the following: "I have looked up the information we have in the EMu collections database system regarding E032197: It is currently listed as an unrestricted item, and is on internal loan to the AM’s Bayala Nura – Yarning Country exhibition, where it can be viewed. There is very little information in the EMu record, with very brief reference to the register and large card entries. The next step would be liaising with the AM’s Archives & Records team to look up the register information. We may be able to have someone from the AM’s First Nations team do this archival search in-house and send through the relevant information to you. All that is listed in the EMu record: -“Carved tablet, ? Message stick, red pigment” -“Queensland?” – so it seems that there is very little -provenance information available. Registered at the AM in 1929. -Donated by Miss G. Mathews – we could also check the vendor file, if available. PK: Updates on this object are listed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NPVu1KrEF5bnhFOTAFEjARNfIuqTT_pivcObVl-ucRE/edit#heading=h.wv2f8vq5062j
Media Files:
Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly, Lorina Barker