NMVW_RV_642_8

Title: A message stick held in the National Museum of World Cultures, Netherlands (Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen - NMVW)

Description: NMVW online catalogue (Google translate): "Letter stick cut from a single piece of yellow-colored wood that has been coated with red dye. Decorated with parallel incised vertical grooves and transverse grooves that cross each other. The incised figures have their meaning, they convey certain messages" Additional info NMVW online catalogue (listed in English): "A short stick of light coloured wood with a series of short, narrow grooves or notches, 'V'-shaped in section, cut along the sides giving the piece of wood a quadrangular cross section. These cuts are reminiscent of 'tally grooves', and of the series of short grooves found on rock engraving sites in the Grafton district of the Clarence valley, and in north-eastern South Australia. Such rock engravings are not found in the Richmond River district. The longer grooves on the message sticks are cut on nopposed sides (nineteen on one, twenty on the other) as are also the shorter grooves (fourteen on one side, thirteen on the other). The message stick measures 9.9 x 1.2 x 0.9 cm. The pair of message sticks is a unique specimen. No other examples from this ara are known, and there is only one reference to their use in the local literature. Bray (1923:7) mentions that 'messages from tribe to tribe were carried verbally except very important ones. This [sic] were marked on a stick by means of notches'. To the south we have records of their use at Port Stephens (Scott 1929:33-4), but unfortunately no description of their features. To the north in Queensland such stick were used, and there are surviving examples in the Queensland Museum's collections. Some of these bear notches, as do the Richmond River specimens, though the particular examples do not come from south-east Queensland (see Hamlyn-Harris 1918:19, 20, 26, 27). Such message sticks apparently served a double purpose; they were 'memory sticks' for the bearer, and guarantees of his good faith as he travelled through the territory of different tribal groups. There seems to be little information on their use in eastern New South Wales, though they are reasonably well documented for other areas such as the Darling basin and central Australi (Hamlyn-Harris 1918; Howitt 1904:678-710)." PK: All these references are in McBryde (1978) Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (RMV): "The collection donated by Mary Bundock in 1888 to the RMV included two message sticks. There are not many preserved in museums. And are not known from the Richmond River District." Original Dutch-language card file from RMV (RMV642-8_1.jpg): "Korte aanduiding: Houen staafje Beschrijving: zoogenaamde "messagestick" of kerfstok; kort en rood gekleurd; de ingesneden figuren hebben hun beteekenis; men brengt daardoor bepaalde mededeelingen over. Ovaal op doorsneden, langs beide kanten met insnijdingen, waardoor stompe tanden zijn gevormd en met schuins loopende groeven aan beide zijden. [...] Literatuur: Bulletin Soc. d'Anthr. Bruxelles Tome III, blz. 145 [PK: This refers to the Houzé and Jacques paper]. Isabel McBryde (ed.), Records of times past. Ethnohistorical essays on the culture and ecology of the New England tribes. Canberra 1978. .p.162 [...] Verwerving: geschenk Miss Mary Bundock te Casino, N.S. Wales maart 1888"

Date Created: 1888

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: traditional_context

State/Territory: New South Wales

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Arakwal Austlang: E13 - Arakwal Glottolog: arak1254

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is given simply as “Casino, New South Wales, Australien”. It therefore cannot be associated with a linguistic area. Linguistic area is roughly inferred from Casino, NSW

Dimension 1: 99mm Dimension 2: 12mm Dimension 3: 9mm

Materials: wood; pigment

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Donated: 1.3.1888

Institution/Holder file: National Museum of World Cultures (Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen - NMVW) object identifier: RV-642-8

Collector: Mary Bundock

Coordinates: 28°52'0.098400"S,153°03'0.000000"E  (-28.866694, 153.05)

Media copyright: National Museum of World Cultures (Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen - NMVW)

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Casino, NSW

URL institution: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/665768

Notes: 20.3.24 NR: Previously held in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. This is a merged file with the previous RMV record. All additional data has been added here. RMV Institution/Holder: object identifier: RMV 642-8. publications on the subject: Isabel McBryde, Museum collections from the Richmond River District. In: Records of times past: Ethnohistorical essays on the culture and ecology of the New England tribes, edited by Isabel McBryde, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra 1978, pp. 135-210, (Ethnohistorical Series No. 3)."

Media Files:

Data Entry: Nitzan Rotman, Julia Bespamyatnykh, Piers Kelly

Related Entries: NMVW_RV_642_9