CPM1958P106F6GH

Title: A message stick from Melville Island, reproduced by Mountford (1958)

Description: Fig. 6G, H, illustrates a message stick (not associated with a pukamuni ceremony) from the Melville Island people, inviting the aborigines on the Coburg Peninsula to pay them a visit and to perform some of their mainland ceremonies. (This message stick suggests that, at the present time, members of the mainland tribes and those of the Tiwi, occasionally visit each other.) On the obverse side, Fig. 6G, the parallel lines, a, a, symbolize the shores of the Coburg Peninsula, and the zig-zag line, h, a mangrove creek in the same locality. On the reverse side, 6H, the V-shaped patterns, a, indicate the men who have been invited from the Coburg Peninsula, and those in the lower section, h, the women. The short transverse lines at c, represent the Melville Island men who will act as hosts to the visitors. (106)

Message: Fig. 6G, H, illustrates a message stick (not associated with a pukamuni ceremony) from the Melville Island people, inviting the aborigines on the Coburg Peninsula to pay them a visit and to perform some of their mainland ceremonies. (106)

Date Created: 1954

Notes on date created: Year of the National Geographic Expedition to Melville Island

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

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: NT

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Tiwi Austlang: N20 - Tiwi Glottolog: tiwi1244

Linguistic area 2: Chirila: Wurrugu Austlang: N37 - Wurrugu Glottolog: wurr1238

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Melville Island. The message stick is associated with the Melville Island people, inviting the aborigines on the Coburg Peninsula

Cultural region: TopEnd_tiwi

Term for 'message stick' (or related) in language: purunkita

Semantic domains: sd_ceremony_funeral

Sources:

Charles P. Mountford (1958). The Tiwi: their Art Myth and Ceremony. London Phoenix Melbourne: Georgian House.

Source types: book article

Coordinates: 11°40'43.784400"S,130°50'7.332000"E  (-11.678829, 130.83537)

Notes on coordinates: Chirila centroid coordinates for Tiwi

Media Files:

Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Piers Kelly