SAM_AA_662_95_2_1

Title: Sketch of a man holding a message stick by Friedrich Wilhelm Albrecht

Item type: fictional message stick

object identifier: AA 662/95/2/1

Collector: Pastor Friedrich Wilhelm Albrecht

URL institution: https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/series/items/aa-662-95-2-1

Notes: PK wrote to FM in 2022: "It’s not clear who drew it or what its purpose was. It was in the collection of Pastor Friedrich Wilhelm Albrecht who worked at Hermannsberg and the headwear of the man on the left would suggest Central Australia (where message sticks were not widely used). What this image appears to represent is an equivalence between the written word and the message stick. Another interpretation is that the man on the left is holding a tjurunga (sacred objects that Arrernte people at Hermannsberg decided to abandon) and the man on the right is holding a Bible which is shown as replacing traditional spiritual beliefs. The catalogue information, however, describes the cartoon as depicting a message stick. "

Media Files:

Data Entry: Piers Kelly