ANON1896P10F7

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

Description: Photo of two facets of one message stick (7) on pp. 10-11 of “The message sticks.” (1896)

Message: [...] it [the stick] is sent by the king of one tribe, by the hands of a messenger, to the king of another tribe to hold a Bora. (p. 11) «Come for ceremony» From: Once known man on Connors River in Gabalbara Country To: Once known man on Connors River in Gabalbara Country Re: Ceremony

Creator of Object: Sender: "the king of one tribe" Recipient: "the king of another tribe"

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. It would be difficult to assign this particular object to any one of those groups. However, the source also provides Indigenous terms for message stick associated with the creators of each object which may help identify the origin. The Indigenous term given for this message stick is "Moodie", however there is nothing approximating this in the Chirila database.

Term for 'message stick' (or related) in language: muti ("Moodie")

Semantic domains: sd_ceremony, sd_request_invitation_ceremony_law

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

Notes: AM register reads: 1981. E.7704. Date: 18 March. Item: String bag & Contents (11 Incised boards and one stone point) . Pl. of attribution: North Queensland, Australia. Don: The Royal Australian Historical Society, 133 Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW. Agent: G.O'Donnell. Col no: 8a & 8b. Remarks: Card inside bag reads: 'Native message stick, Pres. Mrs King'. Contents of bag: three stick and leaf brushes, seven engraved and/or painted wooden boards, one kimberley biface " 20.04.2026 PK: Update: This information appears to be recorded against the wrong entry!

10.1.2026 PK: LB from SLNSW wrote "We've just had a couple of items digitised for another request, and this document, that is largely about message sticks, was in amongst them (pdf attached): Item 1: ‘Information obtained from Shoalhaven Aboriginals’ / author and date unknown Call Numbers MLMSS 144/Box 1/File 1 in Manuscripts collected by Dr Alan Carroll https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1JkOeXGY There isn't much (any) info with it, and its definitely not related to the other items in that file (which are Awabakal language docs in LE Threlkeld's handwriting). "

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly