Coordinates WGS84 | 30°28'S, 131°50'E -30.46, 131.84 |
Title: A message stick from South Australia held in the South Australian Museum
Description: Message stick from the South Australian Museum. Wooden, four lines, resin at one end, poker work dots and dashes.
Date Created: 2005
Notes on date created: terminus ante quem
Item type: message stick in a collection
State/Territory: SA
Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Mirniny Austlang: A9 - Mirning
Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Ooldea, South Australia, Australia. Language is uncertain and inferred from geography. Could also be Wirangu or any number of languages that met at the Ooldea Mission station The "Ooldea tribe" is nonetheless analysed as Mirniny. (Note, however, that Mirniny turns up twice in Chirila. One is over on the western edge of the Nullabor near Caiguna. The other is further east near Eucla. The Eucla Mirniny is the one referred to here.) We have assumed that "Ooldea tribe" is (eastern) Mirniny on the basis of the fact that the Ooldea the mission settlement is in this area at 30° 27′ 32.9″ S, 131° 50′ 8.21″ E and Ooldea soak is just north of it at 30°24'29.0"S 131°49'42.0"E. Tindale also refers to "Miming man of Ooldea who went to Esperance by train and found friendly southern people there". Note that the Ooldea settlement was used as a base for constructing the railroad. The "Ooldea tribe" is analysed as Mirniny. (Note, however, that Mirniny turns up twice in Chirila. One is over on the western edge of the Nullabor near Caiguna. The other is further east near Eucla. The Eucla Mirniny is the one referred to here.) We have assumed that "Ooldea tribe" is (eastern) Mirniny on the basis of the fact that the Ooldea soak and Ooldea Hill are in this area at 29°39'05.5"S 131°50'59.6"E. Tindale also refers to "Miming man of Ooldea who went to Esperance by train and found friendly southern people there" Harald wrote: "For doculects that that referred to as Mirning or the like the corresponding Glottolog variety can be either Kalarko [kala1379] kba Ngadjunmaya [ngad1258] nju It's debatable whether there should be a separate variety with that name. Mirning is also the name of a subgroup" Claire wrote: "So it looks like Glottolog includes 2 western Mirning languages but not the eastern-most one around Eucla, since the term Ngatjumaya is specifically for Western Mirning? I see in my tree I used "Mirniny", "Ngatjumaya" and "Eucla", and a number of Noongar varieties; I didn't have data for inland varieties."
Materials: wood
Source types: museum collection
Date collected: Acquisition Date: Aug 2008 Date registered: 01. Jul 2005
Institution/Holder file: The South Australian Museum object identifier: A-77183
Collector: Donated by: Loft/Bolam
Coordinates: 30°27'32.900400"S,131°50'8.210400"E (-30.459139, 131.835614)
Media copyright: The South Australian Museum
Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Ooldea mission station
Notes: AR: Digitisation of SAM register not available.
Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Piers Kelly, Alexandra Roginski, Nitzan Rotman