SAM_A_51004

Title: A message stick carrying device from the Northern Territory held in the South Australian Museum

Description: Message stick, paper bark on stick, 'piboor' from the collection of the South Australian Museum

Date Created: 1903

Notes on date created: Note that the museums acession date is 1958, but that the Kaparlgoo Mission lasted from between 1899 and 1903 and thus must have been collected in this time; 1899-1903

Item type: message stick accessory

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: NT

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Konbudj Austlang: N224 - Gonbudj

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Alligator River (obtained at Kaparlgoo Mission), Northern Territory, Australia. Philip Fraser (2008) wrote: "Upon arrival at Port Darwin and meeting up with Gathercole and after 'much exploratory work' the missionaries, 'hit upon a point at Kaparlgoo, 25 miles from the mouth of the Alligator River, and 130 miles north-east of Brock's Creek' as the site for their mission. They arrived at Kaparlgoo on 25 November 1899, in the country of the Gonbudj, and close to that of the Ngaduk, Gaagudju, Umbugarla 19 and Limilngan people." (Fraser 2008, 19) In his talk on 26 June for NTAS Bill Lennox said: "When I think and write about Kapalga, I am usually referencing Kapalga billabong and the land immediately around it. Kapalga billabong is one kilometre west of the South Alligator River, about 10 km in a straight line from the Arnhem Highway bridge." Following this leads to a track called Kapalga Access which leads to a billabong. On this basis I plot Kaparlgoo as approximately 12°41'41.3"S, 132°22'25.5"E

Cultural region: TopEnd

Term for 'message stick' (or related) in language: pipurr ("piboor")

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Date Collected/registered: 14. Mrz 1958

Institution/Holder file: The South Australian Museum object identifier: A-51004

Collector: Purchased from: Rogers, Mrs L.G.; originally collected by Mr A. McDiarmid

Coordinates: 12°41'41.301600"S,132°22'25.500000"E  (-12.694806, 132.37375)

Media copyright: The South Australian Museum

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Kapalga billabong, approximate location of Kaparlgoo mission.

Notes: PK: I have not yet had access to a photograph of this, but the "paperbark on stick" description is similar to an object in the NMA (NMA1985_0061_0023). See also Robert Foster's (1998) article "Paper yabber: The messenger and the message" AR: Checked against original SAM register. No new information.

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly, Alexandra Roginski