UQAM4758

Title: A message stick held in the University of Queensland Anthropology Museum

Description: Message stick. Physical Description: The object is a medium brown hardwood that appears to be painted dark brown. It is thick and solid and whilst rectangular in shape the edges are each curved slightly. The surface also has a slight curvature. Vertical lines have been etched into the wood on one of the main faces and there are none on the other. There are two sets of bands that have been incised all the way around the object at each end. There is a small hole in the centre that goes directly through the object. Another hole is present but appears to be part of the wood.

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: NT

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Roper River, Roper - McArthur region, Northern Territory, Australia, Australia

Dimension 1: 125mm Dimension 2: 40mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Unknown

Institution/Holder file: The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum object identifier: 4758

Collector: Sourced by: Mr R. A. Ward

Coordinates: 14°44'8.800800"S,134°43'43.600800"E  (-14.735778, 134.728778)

Media copyright: The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum

Notes on coordinates: An approximate location on the Roper River, near Ngukurr (Roper River Mission), NT, per Google maps

URL institution: https://catalogue.anthropologymuseum.uq.edu.au/?record=ecatalogue.4758

Notes: 21.3.25 NR - As more items in the UQ Anthropology Museum that have been associated with the Roper River were labeled as donated by the Roper River Mission, it could be the donor of this item as well.

Data Entry: Nitzan Rotman