Message stick

A message stick is a form of graphic communication traditionally used by Aboriginal Australians, carried by messengers over long distances to contribute to the verbal message. Although styles vary, it is generally is a length of wood with motifs engraved on it conveying aspects of the message. The sticks were used across continental Australia, and used to convey messages between Aboriginal nations, clans and language groups and even within clans. In the 1880s, they became objects of anthropological study, but there has been little research on them published since then.

For the Australian television series, see Message Stick.
For Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival, see Screen Australia.

"A native carrying a message stick" image from The Euahlayi Tribe by K. Langloh Parker (1905)
An Australian Indigenous message stick held in the National Museum of Australia

Description and use

The message stick is usually a solid piece of wood, around 10–30 centimetres (3.9–11.8 in) in length, etched with angular lines and dots. It is considered a form of proto-writing.[1][2] Styles vary, but they are usually a cylindrical or slightly flattened shape.[3]

Traditionally, message sticks were passed between different peoples, language groups and even within clans[2] to establish information and transmit messages. They were often used to invite neighbouring groups to corroborees, marriages, burials, declarations of war and ball games. Identifying marks inscribed into the stick would convey the relationship.[4][3] When a messenger entered another group’s country, they would first announced their presence with smoke signals, so that they would be taken safely with the message stick to the Aboriginal elders, to whom they would speak their message.[2]

They were referred sometimes called talking-sticks or stick-letters, according to Robert Hamilton Mathews in 1897.[5]

The messenger carrying the stick was granted a kind of diplomatic immunity and guaranteed safe passage into another group's territory.[6]

Historical accounts

Anthropologist Alfred Howitt wrote of the Wurundjeri people of the Melbourne area in 1889:

The oldest man (Headman) having made such a message stick hands it to the old man nearest to him, who inspects it and, if necessary, adds further marks and gives corresponding instructions. Finally, the stick having passed from one to the other of the old men present is handed to the messenger, who has received his verbal message in connection with it. If any duration of time is connected with the message, or if an enumeration of stages or camps is made, a method is used (see Australian Aboriginal enumeration) [to explain this].[7]

Jeannie Gunn wrote about life at a station near the site of the town of Mataranka in the Northern Territory in 1902:

Then he ['Goggle-Eye'] showed me a little bit of stick with notches on it, and said it was a blackfellow's letter-stick, or, as he called it, a "yabber-stick." It was round, not flat like most other letters, and was an invitation to a corroboree; and there were notches on it explaining what sort of corroboree it was, and saying that it was to be held at Duck Creek. There was some other news marked on it...[8]

Donald Thomson, recounting his journey to Arnhem Land after the Caledon Bay Crisis in 1935, writes of Wonggu sending a message stick to his sons, at that time in prison, to indicate a calling of a truce. In etched angles, it showed people sitting down together, with Wonggu at the centre, keeping the peace.[9] The sticks acquired a function as a tool of diplomacy, especially in Northern Australia.[3]

Modern cultural references

See also

References
  1. Aitchison, Jean (31 May 2007). The Word Weavers: Newshounds and Wordsmiths. ISBN 9780521832458.
  2. qmnadmin (6 November 2012). "Message Sticks: rich ways of weaving Aboriginal cultures into the Australian Curriculum". The Queensland Museum Network Blog. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  3. Kelly, Piers (4 July 2019). "Australian message sticks: Old questions, new directions". Journal of Material Culture. SAGE Publications. 25 (2): 133–152. doi:10.1177/1359183519858375. ISSN 1359-1835.
  4. Wurm, S.A.; Mühlhäusler, P.; Tryon, D.T. (1996). Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Vol I: Maps. Vol II: Texts. Trends in Linguistics, Volume 13. De Gruyter. p. 1-PA54. ISBN 978-3-11-081972-4. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  5. Mathews, R.H. (1897). "Message-Sticks Used by the Aborigines of Australia". American Anthropologist. Wiley. A10 (9): 288–298. doi:10.1525/aa.1897.10.9.02a00010. ISSN 0002-7294. PDF
  6. dhwty (22 May 2014). "Aboriginal message sticks and an ancient system of communication". Ancient Origins. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  7. "Notes on Australian Message Sticks and Messengers", AW Howitt, FGS, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, pp 317-8, London, 1889, reprinted by Ngarak Press, 1998, ISBN 1-875254-25-0
  8. "The Little Black Princess", Mrs Aeneas Gunn, p 54, George Robertson: Melbourne, 1909?
    • Peterson, Nicholas, Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land, Melbourne University Press ISBN 0-522-85063-4, pp 80-81.
  10. "Our Story – Message Stick". Message Stick – Indigenous Business. 6 March 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2020.

Further reading
  • Allen L (2015) Message sticks and Indigenous diplomacy. In: K. Darian-Smith, P. Edmonds (eds). Conciliation on Colonial Frontiers: Conflict, Performance and Commemoration in Australia and the Pacific Rim. New York: Taylor & Francis, 113–131.
  • Bastian, A. (1880) Message-sticks der Australie. Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthropologischer Gesellschaft 240–242.
  • Bastian, A. (1881) Australische Schriftsubstitute. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie Transactions 13:192–193.
  • Edye, I.G. (1903) Aboriginal message sticks. Science of Man 5(12): 197–198.
  • Hamlyn, Harris R. (1918) On messages and ‘message sticks’ employed among the Queensland Aborigines. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 6: 13–36.
  • Howitt, A.W. (1889). Notes on Australian message sticks and messengers. Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 18: 314–332.
  • Kelly, Piers. 2019. Australian message sticks: Old questions, new directions. Journal of Material Culture 1-20.Online First
  • Mountford, C.P. (1938). Aboriginal message sticks from the Nullabor Plains. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 62(1): 122–126.
  • Thorpe, W.W. (1926). Aboriginal message sticks. Australian Museum Magazine 2(12): 423–425.
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