Australian message sticks: Old questions, new directions

Piers Kelly

doi:10.1177/1359183519858375

Abstract

Message sticks are tools of graphic communication, once used across the Australian continent. While their styles vary, a typical message stick is a flattened or cylindrical length of wood with motifs engraved on all sides. Carried by special messengers over long distances, their motifs were intended to complement a verbally produced communication such as an invitation, a declaration of war, or news of a death. It was only in the late 1880s that message sticks first became a subject of formal anthropological enquiry at a time when the practice was already in steep transition; very little original research has been published in the 20th century and beyond. In this article, the author reviews colonial efforts to understand these objects, as recorded in documentary and museum archives, and describes transformations of message stick communication in contemporary settings. He summarizes the state-of-the-art in message stick research and identifies the still unanswered questions concerning their origins, adaptations and significance.

Highlights

Message sticks are tools of graphic communication, once used across the Australian continent
The state-of-the-art research on Australian message sticks is bounded by two constraints on data availability: there is no material evidence for their use prior to British colonization in 1788, and Indigenous people no longer employ them today for their traditional purpose of facilitating long-distance communication
Police officers and other foreigners who interacted regularly with Indigenous people, the survey included the question: ‘It has been said that messages are sent from one tribe to another by figures painted on bark or cut on sticks; will you give me your experience on the subject?’ The results of his study, published in fragments throughout the five-volume work The Australian Race (Curr, 1886–1887), revealed that message sticks were known among at least 20 different language groups located across the whole continent

Summary

Introduction

Message sticks are tools of graphic communication, once used across the Australian continent. The messenger who carried the object was the primary interpreter of a message stick’s meaning, and this individual was expected to deliver an explanatory verbal statement to the intended recipient.

Results

Conclusion