Coordinates WGS8422°34'S, 149°03'E
-22.56, 149.04

ANON1896P10F4

Title: Photo of a Queensland message stick from "The message sticks" (1896)

Description: Photo of two facets of one message stick (4) on pp. 10-11 of “The message sticks.” (1896)

Message: 4. This Message Stick is called by the Shoalhaven aborigines Whooma" and consists of a piece of square wood cut with nobs on each end, marks are cut on each side and down the edges. The aborigines at first showed great. fear when they saw this, and would not at first give any information about it, one of them going away and refusing to speak to or have anything to do with me. After a good deal of persuasion, and after explaining what the information was required for, I was informed that this is a "Whooma" or what we call an order to kill someone. When any of the tribe has committed a crime punishable by death, this Stick is obtained from the priest or man in charge of it, and is given to a warrior who is told off to punish the offender." (p. 11)

Date Created: 1870

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: image of a message stick (artefact missing)

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: QLD

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Gabalbara Austlang: E45 - Gabulbarra

Notes on linguistic areas: This artefact, among the others from the same source, was obtained from "a tribe of aborigines inhabiting the country watered by the Conner's River, on the eastern coast of Queensland" (p. 10). We assume that "Conner's River" is intended to be "Connors River". The Connors River basin coincides with Gabalbara. Other groups, such as Mambura are on tributaries of Connors River. Note that the anonymous author writes that the object "is called by the Shoalhaven aborigines 'Whooma'", even though Shoalhaven is very distant from the location in question on the Connor's river. Thus his/her commentary on the stick may be spurious since it may have been elicited in Shoalhaven rather than on the Connor's River. In any case, variants of "whooma" do not turn up in the Chirila database.

Term for 'message stick' (or related) in language: wuma ("whooma")

Semantic domains: sd_execution, sd_request

Sources:

  • Anonymous. 1896. “The message sticks.” The Australasian Anthropological Journal 1 (1):10-11.
  • Collector: Mr. A. H. Fox, of the Bank of New South Wales, Taralga, brother of the gentleman who obtained them [sticks] from the aborigines (p. 10)

    Coordinates: 22°33'41.605200"S,149°02'38.457600"E  (-22.561557, 149.044016)

    Notes on coordinates: Chirila centroid coordinates for Gabalbara

    Media Files:

    Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly