| Coordinates WGS84 | 12°25'S, 130°58'E -12.41, 130.97 |
BM_Oc1925_1117_27
Title: A message stick from Northern Territory held in the British Museum
Description: Message stick made of wood with designs incised.
Message: ‘Most letter sticks are just cut from any piece of smooth wood that is handy; this is just the first one that I have seen of this shape. On one side is a carving of a canoe in the water, & having a rough passage; on the other side is a drawing of tobacco & tucker. The meaning of the message is “We have just come from Melville island. The canoe is no good, it rocks too much. We have all been seasick. Send tucker & tobacco to Shoal Bay, our bellies are empty.” The reason for the stick being shaped like a cone is to show that the sender had travelled in a canoe from the Island. The wavy lines in the canoe represent the sea-sick passengers; “Him belly jump about all same kangaroo”, explained the dusky gentleman who gave me the stick. The marks are made by fire, & also by a sharp-pointed instrument, but the boy could not say whether it was a spear-point, a knife, or a piece of broken glass. I incline to the idea that it [is] made by the point of a spear. The straight lines represent tobacco; the other lines mean food; (tucker); “Might be damper, might be bread, might be bullock (beef), might be tea, sugar, him all about plenty hungry-fellow; canoe bin too much jump-about, him sick all same dog”. The tiny scrap of string has no significance; it was merely used to fasten the stick to the boy’s waist-belt so that it should not be lost. This stick was given to me by the boy to whom it was sent, in return for food to be sent to the boys at Shoal Bay.’ JS Litchfield to TA Joyce, 21 August 1925 [Ethdoc 923]
Date Created: 1925
Notes on date created: terminus ante quem
Item type: message stick in a collection
Subtype: traditional
State/Territory: NT
Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Tiwi Austlang: N20 - Tiwi Glottolog: tiwi1244
Linguistic area 2: Chirila: Larrakia Austlang: N21 - Larrakia Glottolog: lara1258
Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with Melville Island, Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, Australia
Cultural region: TopEnd_tiwi
Dimension 1: 140mm Dimension 2: 23mm Dimension 3: 8mm
Materials: wood
Source types: museum collection
Date collected: Acquisition date: 1925
Institution/Holder file: The British Museum object identifier: Oc1925,1117.27
Collector: Purchased from: Mrs Jessie Sinclair Litchfield Curator's comments: "‘Most letter sticks are just cut from any piece of smooth wood that is handy; this is just the first one that I have seen of this shape. On one side is a carving of a canoe in the water, & having a rough passage; on the other side is a drawing of tobacco & tucker. The meaning of the message is “We have just come from Melville island. The canoe is no good, it rocks too much. We have all been seasick. Send tucker & tobacco to Shoal Bay, our bellies are empty.” The reason for the stick being shaped like a cone is to show that the sender had travelled in a canoe from the Island. The wavy lines in the canoe represent the sea-sick passengers; “Him belly jump about all same kangaroo”, explained the dusky gentleman who gave me the stick. The marks are made by fire, & also by a sharp-pointed instrument, but the boy could not say whether it was a spear-point, a knife, or a piece of broken glass. I incline to the idea that it [is] made by the point of a spear. The straight lines represent tobacco; the other lines mean food; (tucker); “Might be damper, might be bread, might be bullock (beef), might be tea, sugar, him all about plenty hungry-fellow; canoe bin too much jump-about, him sick all same dog”. The tiny scrap of string has no significance; it was merely used to fasten the stick to the boy’s waist-belt so that it should not be lost. This stick was given to me by the boy to whom it was sent, in return for food to be sent to the boys at Shoal Bay.’ JS Litchfield to TA Joyce, 21 August 1925 [Ethdoc 923]"
Coordinates: 12°24'43.898400"S,130°58'17.799600"E (-12.412194, 130.971611)
Media copyright: The British Museum British Museum Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Notes on coordinates: Coordinates for Shoal Bay near Darwin
IRN: EOC16280
Notes: PK: No additional BM images to request for this artefact. 4.12.23 NR: checked against BM online catalogue.
Media Files:
Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup