UQAM7779

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

Description: Message stick. Physical Description: Long, rectangular message stick with slightly curved edges. On one side 26 vertical lines are incised into the wood, which are coloured with a red pigment; the other surface has geometric designs consisting of two squares, zigzags and 10 vertical lines. The object is a medium hardwood and is painted a reddy/brown colour and some white paint is also apparent.

Message: From the UQ Anthropology Museum exhibition 'written on the body' curated by Judy Watson and Diana Young, March - August 2014. "The marks on these two sticks [7779-7780], which also come from Mornington Island, were interpreted to me by the natives, who gave them. They indicated a declaration of war and were carried by the messengers on Sydney Island. The blame for very heavy rain was the complaint." [handwritten note in source file, Belcher.] Zig-zags may indicate boomerangs, signalling the importance of an event [Memmott 2010]. Memmott, P 2010, Material culture of the north Wellesley Islands. Research report series 8, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands, Brisbane.

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: QLD

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Mornington Island, Gulf region, Queensland, Australia

Dimension 1: 210mm Dimension 2: 25mm Dimension 3: 15mm

Materials: ochre, wood

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Unknown

Institution/Holder file: The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum object identifier: 7779

Collector: Collected and donated by: Reverend Douglas Belcher

Coordinates: 16°30'56.498400"S,139°24'18.201600"E  (-16.515694, 139.405056)

Media copyright: The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum

Notes on coordinates: Coordinates for Mornington Island, Queensland, per Google maps

URL institution: https://catalogue.anthropologymuseum.uq.edu.au/?record=ecatalogue.7779

Notes: UQ Anthropology Museum website: "From the UQ Anthropology Museum exhibition 'written on the body' curated by Judy Watson and Diana Young, March - August 2014. "The marks on these two sticks [7779-7780], which also come from Mornington Island, were interpreted to me by the natives, who gave them. They indicated a declaration of war and were carried by the messengers on Sydney Island. The blame for very heavy rain was the complaint." [handwritten note in source file, Belcher.] Zig-zags may indicate boomerangs, signalling the importance of an event [Memmott 2010]. Memmott, P 2010, Material culture of the north Wellesley Islands. Research report series 8, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands, Brisbane."

Media Files:

Data Entry: Nitzan Rotman

Related Entries: UQAM7780