BM_Oc1901_1016_1

Title: A message stick from Western Australia held in the British Museum, sketched by Read (1910) and Frank (1940)

Description: British Museum description: Message stick made of sandalwood. A smooth baton with slightly pointed, flattened ends. Engraved over whole surface with images and shapes, including human figures, drawn in outline with dotted fill. Accompanying sketch: "West Australia. Message-stick of yellow sandal wood, the entire surface covered with human and other figures scratched in outline and shaded by dots. "These sticks are very rare but occasionally they may be purchased from those who have secured them. They fetch from 10/1 to 20/1 according to the value of the lettering." Murchison. Sketch of message stick wrapped in a piece of fur (fig. 7) on p. 345 in Maria Frank's "Botenstäbe in Australien". Curator's comments: Registration slip comment, probably taken from information provided by the donor: "These sticks are very rare, but occasionally they may be purchased from those who have secured them. They fetch from 10/- to 20/- according to the value of the lettering." [PK: keyword punu though this is probably not manufactured specifically for sale]

Date Created: 1901

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Watjarri Austlang: A39 - Wajarri / Wadjarri Glottolog: waja1257

Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with Murchison, Western Australia. This places it within Watjari country.

Dimension 1: 205mm Dimension 2: 13mm Dimension 3: 13mm

Materials: sandalwood

Techniques: carved, engraved

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Acquisition date: 1901 (16 October 1901)

Institution/Holder file: The British Museum object identifier: Oc1901,1016.1

Collector: Donated by: Thomas Birch

Coordinates: 26°08'6.601200"S,116°10'28.999200"E  (-26.135167, 116.174722)

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

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Murchison proper

URL institution: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=505450&partId=1&searchText=message+stick&images=true&page=1

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

IRN: EOC10321

Notes: Frank, Maria. 1940. "Botenstäbe in Australien." Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 72 (4/6): 328-352. 28.11.23 NR: checked against BM online catalogue.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Julia Bespamyatnykh, Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman