AWH1904P696F4

Title: Sketch of a message stick from A.W. Howitt's "The native tribes of southeast Australia" (1904)

Description: Sketch of message stick (fig. 43/4) on p. 696 of Howitt's 1904 "The native tribes of southeast Australia"

Message: If sent to a friendly tribe, it would be an invitation to a feast and dancing corrobboree, and would be wrapped up in a piece of kangaroo skin. If, however, it were sent as a call to attend a fight or a raid on another tribe, the messenger carried a barbed spear, in the point of which two emu feathers were fixed. (p. 699)

Date Created: 1874

Notes on date created: used probably thirty or forty years ago (p. 699); 1864-1874

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

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: VIC

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Gunditjmara Austlang: S20 - Dhauwurd Wurrung^ Glottolog: gund1249

Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with Gournditch-mara tribe

Sources:

Howitt, A. W. 1904. The native tribes of southeast Australia. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited.

Coordinates: 38°13'14.332800"S,142°03'29.995200"E  (-38.220648, 142.058332)

URL source 1: https://archive.org/details/nativetribesofso00howiuoft/page/696

Notes: OT:Not sure if the interpretation is really referring to the artefact JB: This stick is possible the same as PRM-1989.46.5

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly