MAGNT_ABETH_4082

Title: A message stick given to Betty Meehan by D. Balanganba at Lalarr-gadjirripa

Description: From MAGNT catalogue: "Message stick given [to Dr Betty Meehan] by D. Balanganba, Lalarr-gadjirripa, 06/04/73."

Message: From Betty Meehan: ""Darkie Balanganba and Susan Anadjilwa both sent wooden digging sticks with Jackie B. They had grooves on both ends of one side. Those on one side denoted how much of their pension they should/would give towards Jackie B’s and Jackie Dj’s boat. Those on the other end indicated how much they wanted to spend on food. The wood on these sticks is called malwan, and the stick itself is called mark/mak.”

Date Created: 1973

Notes on date created: Exact date: 1973-04-06

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: NT

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Burarra Austlang: N82 - Burarra Glottolog: bura1267

Linguistic area 2: Chirila: Gunibidji Austlang: N74 - Ndjebbana Glottolog: djee1236

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Lalarr-gadjirripa, per Meehan (1982). MAGNT gives linguistic area as Burarra / Gu-jingarliya. However the precise location of Lalarr-gadjirripa is taken from the map in Meehan (1982, p27). See also MAGNT_ABETH_2725

Cultural region: TopEnd_arnhem_east

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

Institution/Holder file: Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

Collector: Dr Betty Meehan

Coordinates: 12°03'39.499200"S,134°34'39.900000"E  (-12.060972, 134.57775)

Notes on coordinates: Exact coordinates for Lalarr-gadjirripa

Notes: The MAGNT has indicated that this message stick is physically inaccessible as of 22 November 2019. From Betty Meehan's Shell bed to shell midden: "The oldest man to collect Tapes hiantina during the year was Balanganba, who was at least 65 years of age but probably more. He gathered some shellfish while visiting the Anbarra community at Lalarr-gadjirripa soon after the roving Kunapipi camp, containing several 'business' men, arrived from Maningrida and settled on the 'old' Lalarr-gadjirripa north–south dune. Most of Balanganba's haul went to this camp, which was prohibited to all females and uninitiated males." p. 127 PK wrote to Betty Meehan on 23 September 2020. Meehan replied on the following day, but gave a fuller account on 27 September 2020. Here is the main text of it: " I have had time to look at the field notes that Rhys and I kept whilst living with the An-barra on the banks of An-gacha Wana (Blyth River) in 1973. I will summarise (and quote where appropriate) what I found. On that day several people who were camped on the eastern bank of An-gacha Wana, probably at a home base called Inanganduwa, had arrived at Lalarr Gu-jirripa to bring some items of material culture that they had made for sale. These were to go, eventually, to the Maningrida organisation that managed the sale of such items. Eventually the various makers would be paid for these items by the person managing this business in Maningrida (probably Dan Gillespie at that time). Both Rhys and I processed these items best we could in our conditions before they were collected and taken to Maningrida. In my field notes I mention: bark paintings, hand woven bags, shell necklaces and, significantly, some items from Darkie Balanganba and Susan Anadjilwa a description of which I will quote in full below. At the time Darkie and Susan were living in another community on the eastern bank of An-gacha Wana, possibly Inanganduwa. This information comes from one of my field note books - An-barra Project, Book 13, 18/3/73- 13/4/73, page 76: "Darkie Balanganba and Susan Anadjilwa both sent wooden digging sticks with Jackie B. They had grooves on both ends of one side. Those on one side denoted how much of their pension they should/would give towards Jackie B’s and Jackie Dj’s boat. Those on the other end indicated how much they wanted to spend on food. The wood on these sticks is called malwan, and the stick itself is called mark/mak.” I also looked at Rhys’ field notes for the same day. He says: "Jackie B; Peter Dj and Jackie M came up with craft from the other side including a shell necklace, + 2 string ‘halters’ worn by young girls. Betty took notes. also some lovely small dilly bags + some bark paintings (the latter by Jackie K...” (Rhys Jones: Book 18, 31/3/73 - 12/4/73) It is probable that Rhys and I bought the so-called ‘digging sticks’ from Darkie and Susan and that they are the items that are now in the MAGNT. " Compare MAGNT_ABETH_2725

Data Entry: Piers Kelly