WRS1907P62

Title: Photo of a message stick in W. R. Smith's publication (1907)

Description: Photo of two facets of one message stick on p. 62 of Ramsay Smith's "Notes on Aboriginals of the Northern Territory of South Australia"

Message: he had written that he was sorry to say he was no better (p. 61)

Creator of Object: Sender: "a black boy, named Spider, suffering from "ulcerating granuloma pudendi" Recipient: "his father" (p. 61)

Date Created: 1907

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: image of a message stick (artefact missing)

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: NT

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Larrakia Austlang: N21 - Larrakia Glottolog: lara1258

Linguistic area 2: Chirila: Binbinka Austlang: N138 - Binbinka Glottolog: binb1242

Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with "the Palmerston Hospital". This is presumably the one in Darwin, given the context that Ramsay Smith describes, thus Larrakia is the linguistic area. The sender is a boy from Borroloola tribe (p. 61-62) in the Binbinka linguistic area. The stick is called "Yabber-stick" (p. 62)

Cultural region: TopEnd

Semantic domains: sd_illness

Sources:

Ramsay Smith, W. 1907. “Notes on Aboriginals of the Northern Territory of South Australia.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 27:51-63.

Collector: W Ramsay Smith. "The nurse was good enough to procure the first letter for me." (p. 62)

Coordinates: 16°04'13.000800"S,136°18'25.999200"E  (-16.070278, 136.307222)

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Borroloola

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup