MusV_X_12619

Title: A message stick from Roper River held in Museums Victoria

Description: Summary: "This message stick is cylindrical and has a diamond like pattern cut into the entire surface. It is amongst a small number of objects donated to the museum by Mrs A Gunn, presumably the novelist Mrs Aeneas Gunn or Jeannie Gunn who went with her husband to run Elsey Station in 1902 and 1903." Physical Description: "A cylindrical stick made of wood incised with lines forming a diamond pattern."

Message: Old Gogle [Goggle] eye to go to the the bush.

Date Created: 1904

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: NT

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Yangman Austlang: N68 - Yangman Glottolog: yang1288

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Roper River, Eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

Cultural region: TopEnd_arnhem

Semantic domains: sd_activity_travel, sd_person, sd_place_bush

Dimension 1: 115mm Dimension 2: 15mm Dimension 3: 15mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: 1902

Institution/Holder file: Museums Victoria object identifier: MV_Item_X_12619 X 12619

Collector: Mrs A Gunn

Place collected: Australian Indigenous - Northern Australia and Queensland and Torres Strait Islands

Coordinates: 15°05'0.200400"S,133°07'22.101600"E  (-15.083389, 133.122806)

Media copyright: Museums Victoria Copyright Museums Victoria / All Rights Reserved / Reuse May Require Cultural Clearances (Licensed as All Rights Reserved)

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for former site of Elsey Station

URL institution: https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/168643

Notes: MusV data: X 012619, Message stick, Roper River, Eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia, c.1900, Registered Gunn, Mrs Aeneas (Presented, Nov 1904) Roper River Northern Territory Original register: "12619. Message Stick. Red Lily Tribes, Roper River. Northern Territory. 'Old Gogle eye to go to the the bush.' Rounded form. Length 4 1/4'. Presented by Mrs Aeneas Gunn." MusV ComSecondaryComments: "Collector and collection and production dates attributed by curator, on the basis of the assumption that "Mrs A Gunn" is the novelist, Mrs Aeneas Gunn (Jeannie Gunn) who ran Elsey Station with her husband from 1902 to 1903. (Lindy Allen 2016)" 02.12.23 PK: From Bradshaw, John. 2023. He of the Never-Never: Mr Aeneas Gunn. Melbourne & Galway: Arden, p.296: "Jeannie continued to admire and be astonished by the very different world she had learnt to love and respect in their first year on Elsey. She had asked for and been given lessons in the local language and customs, learning how to interpret a message stick, identify edible plants and weave bags."

Media Files:

Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Piers Kelly