PMH326870_D4056

Title: A message stick taken the bed of the Forrest River, held in the Peabody Museum Harvard

Description: PMH Catalogue Description: Message stick. Carving, rectangular, flat wood, incised linear designs on both sides

Date Created: 1911

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: WA

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Yiiji Austlang: K32 - Yiiji Glottolog: yiij1234

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is the bed of Forrest River, Kimberley, Western Australia. This is in Yiiji Country. Traditional owners now identify themselves as Balanggarra. Closest community is Oombulgurri

Dimension 1: 255mm Dimension 2: 41mm Dimension 3: 10mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: 1911

Institution/Holder file: Peabody Museum Harvard object identifier: 32-68-70/D4056

Collector: Sold By: University of Pennsylvania (4/11/1932-5/9/1932) Collector: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (1911) CREDIT LINE Museum Purchase, Museum Improvements Fund, 1932

Coordinates: 15°10'50.800800"S,127°51'11.901600"E  (-15.180778, 127.853306)

Media copyright: Peabody Museum Harvard For rights and reproductions requests, see https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/about/rightspermissions

Notes on coordinates: Random coordinates along the Forrest River, Western Australia, per Google maps. Wikipedia: The Forrest River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

URL institution: https://collections.peabody.harvard.edu/objects/details/77823?ctx=b91da45f9a14cd34acd9a4766e8595e85973c68a&idx=0

Notes: PK: This might be an archeological find, given that it was sourced from the bed of the Forrest River. 27.02.2024: No new info specifically about this object from PMH accession files, see p43 of PMR-24-142 Kelly 32-68DIST.pdf however these files indicate that the object was part of collection formerly at the The Museum of the University of Pennsylvania and sold to the Peabody in 1932 for $750. D.S. Davidson, who was not the original collector, wrote: "This collection was made over a period of years by an amateur who had the unusual interest to record what information he could get concerning each. Since the Australians are great traders it stands to reason that the locality given does not necessarily imply the place or origin altho this would probably be approximately true in most cases. The value of a great many specimens lies in the fact that they are from tribes which are now extinct" (p10). The date span for this collection is given as 1896-1931 (p.2) 25.3.24 NR: "LABEL ON OBJECT D4056" 11.04.24 PK: I examined this object in the Peabody on 11 April 2024 and noted that it is very light as if made from paperbark core. It is also finished in red ochre.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman