MusV_X_12620

Title: A message stick from the Elsey River, Northern Territory held in the Museums Victoria

Description: This elliptical shaped message stick has a linear design cut into the entire surface. It is recorded as being from the "Jungman" group on the Elsey River. MV Object Description, PDF: "A short cylindrical shaped section of wood incised with linear patterns."

Message: Corrobboree coming in wet season from Catherine River

Date Created: 1904

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem (date of registration)

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 Elsey, Fitzmaurice, Northern Territory, Australia "Jungman" group on the Elsey River

Cultural region: TopEnd

Semantic domains: sd_activity_ceremony, sd_place_katherineriver, sd_time_wetseason

Dimension 1: 150mm Dimension 2: 20mm Dimension 3: 10mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: 1902

Institution/Holder file: Museums Victoria object identifier: MV_Item_X_12620 X 12620

Collector: Mrs A Gunn

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

Coordinates: 14°57'47.098800"S,133°15'43.401600"E  (-14.963083, 133.262056)

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

Notes on coordinates: Approximate coordinates for the westernmost point of Elsey Creek within the Yangman area

URL institution: https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/168644

Notes: This message stick is amongst a small number of objects donated to the museum by a Mrs A Gunn, presumed to be the novelist Mrs Aeneas Gunn or Jeannie Gunn who went with her husband to run Elsey Station in 1902 and 1903. MusV data: X 012620, Message stick, Elsey River, Fitzmaurice, Northern Territory, Australia, 1900, Registered Gunn, Mrs Aeneas (Presented, Nov 1904) Jungmun Elsey River Northern Territory Original register: "Message stick. Flattened form. Length 5 3/4" Jungman Tribe, Elsey River, Northern Territory. Message: 'Corrobboree coming in wet season from Catherine River. Presented by Mrs Aeneas Gunn" MusV Primary comments: "Message stick. Flattened form. Length 5 3/4". Jungmun Tribe, Elsey River, Northern Territory. Message "Corroboree coming in wet season from Catherine River" (Register Entry)" 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, Alexandra Roginski