GATTY1879P61

Title: An early message stick from Queensland described in a catalogue

Description: From catalogue, pp60-61: "532. Shield, club, boomerang, and notched stick, from Queensland, [60] Australia. The small notched stick was a message from some natives on an island in Moreton Bay, to whom Mr. Dodds of Humpy Bong had applied for help in crushing sugar cane. The notches on one side represented the number of men that would be sent, those on the other the number of days they would be sent in. Speaking of these message-sticks Mr. Brough-Smyth says :—"The Australians, according to the statements made by my correspondents and confirmed by the evidence I have produced, couls really send messages, describe the events of a jounrey, and furnish details of a kind likely to be useful to their friends. It is not without interes and importance that one of their message-sticks should have been produced in a court of justice in Queensland, and interpreted by a native trooper." Presented by Mrs. Arthur Morely Francis. 12.5.81. 1-4"

Message: The small notched stick was a message from some natives on an island in Moreton Bay, to whom Mr. Dodds of Humpy Bong had applied for help in crushing sugar cane. The notches on one side represented the number of men that would be sent, those on the other the number of days they would be sent in

Item type: positive text reference

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: QLD

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Duungidjawu Austlang: E20 - Duungidjawu Glottolog: duun1241

Sources:

Gatty, Charles T. 1879. Liverpool Free Public Library, Museum and Gallery of Art: Catalogue of the Mayer Collection. Part I. The Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities. London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co.

Collector: Mr Dodds of Humpy Bong

Coordinates: 27°13'3.000000"S,153°06'24.001200"E  (-27.2175, 153.106667)

Notes on coordinates: Approximate coordinates for Humpybong

URL source 1: https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Catalogue_of_the_Mayer_Collection/q09DAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1

Notes: PK wrote to Marion Servat-Fredericq of the National Museums Liverpool to ask whether the object was in its collection. Servat-Fredericq replied (2 Sep 2020): Many thanks for your email, this is very interesting. I believe a large part of the Mayer collection is now in our collection but I’m not sure we received all of it. The description of the stick and the names in the article do not ring any bells so it is possible that some objects including this stick went somewhere else.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Piers Kelly