BM_Oc1895_20

Title: A message stick from Western Australia held in the British Museum

Description: British Museum description: Cylindrical message stick made of wood, with blackened engraved designs (including a bird) divided by spiral bands. Accompanying sketch: "Western Australia. Message stick of pale yellow wood neatly engraved with thin lines blackened. The designs include a cassowary shapeless patches with serrated edges and above said a building (?) all divided by a spiral line. Made by prisoners in jail at Perth Western Australia and intercepted by the warders given to me by the late Sir George Maclean"

Creator of Object: made by a prisoner in the jail at Perth, Western Australia

Date Created: 1895

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: WA

Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with Perth, Western Australia

Dimension 1: 161mm Dimension 2: 16mm Dimension 3: 14mm

Materials: wood

Techniques: engraved

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Acquisition date: 1895

Institution/Holder file: The British Museum object identifier: Oc1895,-.20

Collector: Donated by: Sir William Henry Flower Previous owner/ex-collection: Sir George Macleay Curator's comments: "See Christy Correspondence: Note to Dept of Ethnography from W H Flower, Jan 23rd 1895 'Australian native "message stick" made by a prisoner in the jail at Perth, Western Australia, and intercepted by the warders. Given to me by the late Sir George Macleay K.C.M.G.'"

Coordinates: 31°57'4.201200"S,115°51'47.998800"E  (-31.951167, 115.863333)

Media copyright: The British Museum British Museum Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Perth, Western Australia, per Google maps

URL institution: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=481938&partId=1&searchText=message+stick&images=true&sortBy=fromDateDesc&page=1

URL source 1: https://archive.org/stream/handbooktoethnog00brit#page/42/mode/2up

IRN: EOC34737

Notes: PK: NF wrote of this object: "Perth Gaol followed the ‘silent system’ where all communication between prisoners was forbidden" 4.12.23 NR: Additional IDs: CDMS number: Oc1895C3.20 (old CDMS no.). 4.12.23 NR: checked against BM online catalogue.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman