NMA1985_0108_0022

Title: A message stick from Numbulwar held in the National Museum of Australia

Description: Wooden message stick with an elliptical cross section and truncated ends, crosswise and transverse incisions, together with notches on the sides.

Creator of Object: Madi (see also object 1985.0108.0023)

Date Created: 1965

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem; 1965-01

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: unknown

State/Territory: NT

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Warndarang Austlang: N120 - Warndarrang Glottolog: wand1263

Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with Numbulwar, East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

Cultural region: TopEnd_arnhem_east

Dimension 1: 130mm Dimension 2: 30mm Dimension 3: 15mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: 1964-1965

Institution/Holder file: The National Museum of Australia object identifier: 1985.0108.0022

Collector: Dr Alex Van der Leeden collection

Coordinates: 14°16'34.298400"S,135°44'25.101600"E  (-14.276194, 135.740306)

Media copyright: The National Museum of Australia

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Numbulwar

URL institution: http://collectionsearch.nma.gov.au/ce/message%20stick?&object=18306

IRN: 18306

Notes: This may be identical to the object RMV4090_18. Wonu Veys of RMV has not confirmed this. Check with NMA. According to NMA: "This is one of 24 objects in the National Museum of Australia from Rose River (Numbulwar) which were collected by anthropologist Alex Van der Leeden during his fieldwork there in 1964-65. Van der Leeden also gave similar collections from Rose River to the Australian Museum and the Rijksmuseum Volkerkunde in Leiden." 22.01.2026 PK: Correspondence with B.B. at University of Melbourne: [22.02.2026:] Hi Piers, I figured out which one it was (possibly more than one)ː https://amsd.clld.org/contributions/RMV4090_18#4/-13.84/135.85 which was created by a man called Maadi (listed as 'Madi' in the entry), who was the father of a woman I learned Wubuy from for while until she died about 10 years ago. Her name was Gunyibuwa Murrungun. Maadi was the leader of the Nunggubuyu, and was central in establishing the mission at Rose River (later Numbulwar) and in getting people to move back there from the Roper River mission (later Ngukurr), where they were mostly living until the 1950s. (Ginyibuwa bestowed her name on my daughter, so she's pretty special to us.) I hope you and Sally are going ok up there. At least Barnaby is still good for a laughǃ Cheers, Brett. [05.02.2026:] Thanks B! And sorry for my very late reply. There are either two or four message sticks made by Maadi, but they are listed as being simultaneously at the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands and at the NMA in Canberra. They are in the catalogues of both institutions! Here they are: https://amsd.clld.org/contributions/NMA1985_0108_0022 is probably the same as https://amsd.clld.org/contributions/RMV4090_18#4/-13.84/135.85 https://amsd.clld.org/contributions/NMA1985_0108_0023 is probably the same as https://amsd.clld.org/contributions/RMV4090_35#4/-13.84/135.85 The Rijksmuseum never got back to me, but it should be fairly easy to confirm if they are at the NMA or not. If you don't mind, I might add your comments to the notes. Piers

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly