Message stick

This article is about a means of communication by Aboriginal Australians. For the Australian television series, see Message Stick. For the film festival, see Message Sticks Festival.

"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
Message stick inscribed with notches and strokes and their codified meaning (Howitt, 1889)

A message stick is a public communication device used by Aboriginal Australians. The objects were carried by messengers over long distances and were used for reinforcing a verbal message. Although styles vary, they are generally oblong lengths of wood with motifs engraved on all sides. They have traditionally been used across continental Australia, to convey messages between Aboriginal nations, clans and language groups. In the 1880s, they became objects of anthropological study, but there has been little research on them published since then. Message sticks are non-restricted since they were intended to be seen by others, often from a distance. They are nonetheless frequently mistaken for tjurungas.[1] the term 'message stick' is also sometimes applied to similar objects made by Indigenous people of North America, housed in the Peabody Museum Harvard and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley.

  1. ^ "How to identify a message stick". Brave New Words. 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.