Title: A message stick held in the Western Australian Museum
Description: Message stick
Item type: message stick in a collection
State/Territory: WA
Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with Goldfields. The Goldfields–Esperance region is the largest of Western Australia's regions, hence this item cannot be localised.
Materials: wood
Source types: museum collection
Date collected: Unknown
Institution/Holder file: Western Australian Museum object identifier: A24785
Collector: Unknown
Media copyright: Western Australian Museum
Notes: Email from RC on 16.12.2024: "I’ve now had time to produce a list of message sticks (just basic data) from the database that are/were in the Museum’s collection. Note that there are 73 from this list that have been repatriated to community. I’m about to head off on extended leave tomorrow so won’t have time to produce anything more detailed. However, the information by and large reflects the information that is captured in the registers. And as background message sticks are typically categorised a short cylindrical stick that has an incised decoration applied to it (think clapping stick with various regional designs applied, though the thickness can vary from 15-20mm)." 23.5.25 NR: "In the 1890s the goldfields term was used for country between Southern Cross and Coolgardie; however, as the gold fields extended to Kalgoorlie and beyond, the term Eastern Goldfields was used for the locations in vicinity of Kalgoorlie at that stage." (Wikipedia).
Data Entry: Nitzan Rotman