digging-stick
- Museum number
- Oc1839,0620.32
- Description
-
Digging-stick, of wood, bevelled at distal end.
- Production date
- 1839 (before)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 109.60 centimetres
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Width: 2.70 centimetres
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Depth: 2.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Description in Extracts from the British and Medieval Register 1757-1878, p.24:
32. Wood digging stick, bevelled at one end.
(Digging or grubbing stick. Is a piece of stick about 3 ft long and is used for all purposes of a spade. It is with these they dig their wells, strip the trees of long pieces of bark for making their huts, cooking etc, the women also use it as a weapon when they fall out with each other.)
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Digging or grubbing stick.
Is a piece of stick about three feet long and is used for all the purposes of a spade, it is with these they dig the native potato[,] ground nuts etc, dig their wells, strip the trees of long pieces of bark for making their huts, cooking etc, the women also use it as a weapon when they fall out with each other.' (From a description of the Talbot collection in the 'Acquisitions Ethnographical 1835-1839', AOA Archive).
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A listing of this collection, titled 'Implements used by the Natives in the neighbourhood of the Swan River, collected by S Neil Talbot Esq. in 1838 and presented by him to the British Museum' was entered in the 'Acquisitions Ethnographical 1835- 1839' (Dept of Africa, Oceania and the Americas Archives).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1972-1982 23 Jun-28 Feb, London, BM, Museum of Mankind, The Aborigines of Australia
2015 23 Apr-2 Aug, London, BM, G35, Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisation
2015-2016 27 Nov-28 Mar, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, Encounters
- Acquisition date
- 1839
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1839,0620.32
