PRM1990_36_1

Title: A message stick held in the Pitt Rivers Museum

Description: Wooden message stick, carved and incised with markings. Colour: Brown

Date Created: 1990

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is given simply as “Australia”. It therefore cannot be associated with a linguistic area.

Dimension 1: 315mm

Materials: wood plant

Techniques: carved, incised

Source types: museum collection

Institution/Holder file: Pitt Rivers Museum object identifier: 1990.36.1

Collector: Field Collector: Mann, collected by 1990 Other Owners: Nicholas Mann PRM Source: Nicholas Mann, donated July 1990 "Found with donor's father's and grandfather's papers. A branch of his father's family lived in Australia."

Media copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum

URL institution: http://objects.prm.ox.ac.uk/pages/PRMUID4870.html

Notes: Display history: Selected for the PRM exhibition 'Objects Talk', 5th October 2002 - Summer 2003. [CF 28/5/2002] Exhibition Labels [Displayed in the special exhibition Objects Talk at the PRM from 5 October 2002 to 17 August 2003. In this exhibition, objects were displayed with curatorial notes and with comments elicited by Museum staff from members of the local community, who selected the objects from the Museum's displays and reserve collections. This object was accompanied by the following texts] - Comment: ‘Message stick, Australia. We wanted to find out what it was. How do you use it to send a message? Is it a whistle or is it a drum? It just says message stick. It looks like a cigar. Nora Pearce and June Simmons.’ Curatorial note: ‘Message stick, Australia. There was much discussion amongst anthropologists in the late nineteenth century about the use of message sticks in different parts of Australia. It was thought that they were widely used and would have served a range of functions such as signifiers of safe passage through new territories or as invitations. It has been suggested that the notches on the stick probably acted as reminders rather than as a language that could be read. Today they stand as an icon of Australian Aboriginal culture. This particular message stick was found with the donor's father and grandfather's papers after their deaths and little is known of its provenance or use. Museum accession number: 1990.36.1.’ [OD 28/10/2002]. PK: No new info in PRM print-out (2019)

Media Files:

Data Entry: Julia Bespamyatnykh, Piers Kelly