message stick
- Museum number
- Oc1900,0723.58
- Description
-
Commemorative stick, message stick, of wood, coloured red, rounded at the ends. Ornamented with incised lines.
- Production date
- 19thC(late)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 7.50 centimetres
-
Width: 1.50 centimetres
-
Depth: 0.70 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Kelly 2019, p.4 says of this message stick:
'Figure 2. Message stick from Queensland in the British Museum (Oc1900,0723.58), collected by W Charles Handley in c. 1900. According to the catalogue, the object communicates the deaths of three children. On the basis of Roth’s (1897) glossing of Kalkatungu message sticks, the two central diamonds enclosing a cross would represent ‘male’ and the adjacent diamond enclosing a vertical line would stand for ‘female’. If these motifs had wide currency in Queensland, this might indicate the genders of the three deceased children.'
-
Register slip comment:
'Cairns district.
Chokay or stick cut to commemorate the death of three children'.
Correspondence from Handley Feb 4/96 indicates:
'No. 3 is in memory of his children that died. He pointed to crosses in side, these figures [...] & said they indicated the children had died of a pain inside'.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1900
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1900,0723.58