SAM_A_21951

Title: A message stick from Milingimbi urging peace, held in the South Australian Museum

Description: Message stick from the South Australian Museum

Message: Message stick depicts a human figure, 'A' represents sender, 'B' represents recipient; message is 'Keep the men from making trouble' PK: If you zoom in to the photographs you can see that Shepherdson has annotated the object itself in pencil as per the Glyde River message stick (SAM_A_16447). On SAM_A_21951_a_front.tif you can find the pencil mark 'A' in line with the belt of the smaller man, and the pencil mark 'B' in line with chest of the taller man. Also note that the X on their chests possibly stands for a breast girdle, per Morphy 'Ancestral connections' page 265

Date Created: 1935

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: NT

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Djinang Austlang: N94.1 - Djinang Glottolog: djin1253

Linguistic area 2: Chirila: Yan-nhangu Austlang: N72 - Yan-nhangu Glottolog: yann1237

Notes on linguistic areas: From catalogue: "The origin of the message stick is Milingimbi (sent from Goyder River), Northern Territory, Australia". PK: Presumably this was sent from Goyder river to Milingimbi where it was collected Goyder River = Djinang Milingimbi = Yan-nhangu

Cultural region: TopEnd_arnhem_east

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Acquisition Date: Feb 1935

Institution/Holder file: The South Australian Museum object identifier: A-21951

Collector: Purchased from: Shepherdson, H.U.

Coordinates: 12°06'12.801600"S,134°54'39.398400"E  (-12.103556, 134.910944)

Media copyright: The South Australian Museum

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Milingimbi

Notes: SAM has images, but permission is still being negotiated: SAM-A21951_Front.tif SAM-A21951_Notation.tif SAM-A21951_Reverse.tif The design is very close to that of MV_DT3050 The collector is Harold Urquhart Shepherdson and the museum has a number of archives relevant to him: https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collection/archives/provenances/aa320 It would be worth checking records prior to the accession date of 1931. It would also be worth consulting this book: Shepherdson, Ella. 1981. Half a century in Arnhem Land. One Tree Hill, S.A.: Ella and Harold Shepherdson. AR: Checked against SAM register, but PK has already done this.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly, Alexandra Roginski