CAC973_1_25

Title: A message stick held in the Cornell University Museum (Cornell Anthropology Collections)

Description: CUM register: "Messenger stick. Wooden stick; flatted oval in cross-section; decorated with cuts of irregular depth and width which form a spiral' although each side merely looks like diagonal lines; also has a trident of E shaped design of four lines at one end of a flat side; carving marks or facets visible on ends."

Date Created: 1930s

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: QLD

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is associated with Yir Yoront

Dimension 1: 116mm Dimension 2: 20mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: 1930s

Institution/Holder file: Cornell University Museum (Cornell Anthropology Collections) object identifier: Old Catalog Number: 973.1.25

Collector: Lauriston Sharp

Coordinates: 15°28'37.599600"S,141°44'50.899200"E  (-15.477111, 141.747472)

Media copyright: Cornell University Museum (Cornell Anthropology Collections)

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Kowanyama, Queensland, per google maps. Wikipedia: Kowanyama is a town and coastal locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Kowanyama, Queensland, Australia. The Yir-Yoront, also known as the Yir Yiront, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula.

Notes: 26.7.24: NR: on the printed card the length measurement is 102mm. 26.7.4 NR: Frederic W Gleach on 20.06.2024: "My apologies for the slow response – the semester was crazy and I lost track of my reminder for this. I've attached here the cataloguing we have for Lauri's Yir Yorront collections, there are three separate subcollections (for reasons that are unclear, although one is earlier in date of donation). The first, from 1973, has photos as part of the records but the ones from 1983 do not. There are two pieces catalogued as memory sticks, but I don't think they're the two referenced in your Alpher note: they are cylindrical, pale soft wood, both with similar more-or-less diagonal cuts all around the full length. There also is a piece that looks to me like a bull-roarer that had surface carvings. I can supply photos of any you may need to see, just let me know (I promise to be faster in responding!). And of course happy to get any information that we might add, and to work with you if return is appropriate. I did take a look at the pieces in the more recent donation, and checked with the Library (which transferred them to us), and not only are they not well provenienced but there are no memory sticks. It's mostly boomerangs and throwing sticks." "YIR YORONT COLLECTION. These items were donated to the Anthropology Collections by Lauriston Sharp in1988' They were collected over a number of field trips to North Queensland Australia, the first around 1933-5 and two subsequent trips c. 1957 and 1977; Dr. Sharp was not sure which pieces came from which trip. although he did say that the visibly older hags and thestoneaxecamefromthe1933-35trip. Some of the newer bags and the belt were probably made for the tourist trade" "YIR YORONT COLLECTION: Gift of Yir Yoront aboriginal artifacts to Department of anthropology, Cornell University, from Aboriginal Council kowanyama North Queensland. August 1987 --Hote: F, ,M, F/M. Made, owned (in parentheses=and used) primarily by adult Female or Male --Capitals: B. Alpher's 1989 transcription of Yir Yoront terms (Yir Yoront Lexicon 1989), Q=glottal stop; Y=shwa (vowel) --Information by Vivian Sinnamon of Kawanyama and Lauriston Sharp of Cornell University (Dissertation 1937). Vivian Sinnamon's comments came on original collection catalogue (see files); Lauriston Sharp's were added in 1989. In cases where Sharp’s list differed from Sinnamon's, I used Sharp's version, but starred the card *"

Media Files:

Data Entry: Nitzan Rotman