UQAM4759

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

Description: Message stick. Physical Description: Long, rectangular object. Colour is light brown with three dark bands going around the stick - 1 at either end and one in the middle of the object. The stick has 3 holes drilled (one at either end and one in the middle). Stick is also covered with round burns that look like they were made with a heat tool - the burns are about 3 ml deep and 5 ml in diameter. There is one length of twine attached to either end, tied on through holes. The twine is about 45cm in length.

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: 160mm Dimension 2: 35mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Unknown

Institution/Holder file: The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum object identifier: 4759

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.4759

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