UQAM621

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

Description: Message stick. Physical Description: The object is in a display case. It is solid and rounded, essentially cylinidrical in shape however the ends are rounded. The object has been painted a reddy/brown colour and looks as if it was a wash or quite watery as it is not a uniform finish. The incised pattern consists of a number of cirlcles (which have smaller circles within these) and lines join these circular patterns together. The pattern is coloured with a reddy/brown paint similar to the objects overall finish colour but darker and uniform (does not appear watery).

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: SA

Notes on linguistic areas: This message stick has ben collected from Broome, Kimberley region, Western Australia but in the notes provided on the UQAM's website it is mentioned it travelled from Ooldea, SA to Broom, WA.

Dimension 1: 265mm Dimension 2: 35mm

Materials: wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Donated: 1948

Institution/Holder file: The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum object identifier: 621

Collector: Collected & donated by: Mr Barnard E. Bardwell

Coordinates: 30°27'27.500400"S,131°50'11.198400"E  (-30.457639, 131.836444)

Media copyright: The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum

Notes on coordinates: Approximate coordinates for Ooldea, SA, per Google maps

URL institution: https://catalogue.anthropologymuseum.uq.edu.au/?record=ecatalogue.621

Notes: UQ Anthropology Museum website: "Message stick 621 was used for initiation ceremony, and was also used as a magic stick. It travelled from Ooldea, South Australia to north west Western Australia and was collected in Broome. The Foundation Donation comprises the items from L. P. Winterbotham's personal collection, which were donated to the University of Queensland in 1948 and form the basis of the Anthropology Museum."

Data Entry: Nitzan Rotman