Coordinates WGS8417°30'S, 125°45'E
-17.50, 125.75

AMus_E052564

Title: A message stick held in the Australian Museum

Description: largecard: "Wooden fusiform message stick; section: bi-convex; incised diagonal design"

Date Created: 1948

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: WA

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is King Leopold Ranges, Western Australia

Dimension 1: 215mm Dimension 2: 27mm

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Registration Date: 10.12.1948

Institution/Holder file: The Australian Museum object identifier: E052564

Collector: Mrs C. M. Kellard (largecard)

Coordinates: 17°30'S,125°45'E  (-17.5, 125.75)

Media copyright: The Australian Museum

Notes on coordinates: Random coordinates along the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges (formerly King Leopold Ranges), Western Australia, per Google maps. Wikipedia: The Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges (formerly between 1879 and 2020, the King Leopold Ranges) are a range of hills in the western Kimberley region of Western Australia.

URL institution: http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/Display.php?irn=821&QueryPage=%2Famweb%2Fpages%2Fam%2FQuery.php&highlight_term=message+stick

Notes: REGISTER

Date: Dec. 10, 1948

Name or Description: Message-stick

Locality: Western Australia

How Acquired: Pres. Mrs Kellard [sic]

References to Papers: 243/48; 48/131; L1148/131

Estimated or Market Value:

Destination:

Remarks:

ACCESSION SCHEDULE

Reference File no. 1/48/131 Accession No. 243 Date received: 15 Dec 1948 Received from: Mrs C. M. Kellard, 62 Fairhaven, Durban, South Africa. Specimens of: Anthropology How acquired: Presented Acknowleded (date) L. T. 16th December, 1948 Purchase Voucher No. [N/A] Forwarded to Office (date): 15/121 1948 Information.: A message-stick used by the aborigines both as a passport through tribal territories other than their own & also as a means of reminding the traveller of the message he is to deliver verbally. The works sometimes denote numbers but they cannot be read as a coherent script. This sample is welcomed because its locality is known. The old boomerangs, if localized, would also be acceptable. Register No.: E52564 Number of specimens: 1 Common name: Message-stick, Prince Leopold Ranges, Western Australia OTHER NOTES

Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Nitzan Rotman, Piers Kelly