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.
Description and use
The message stick is usually a solid piece of wood, around in length, etched with angular lines and dots. It is considered a form of proto-writing. Styles vary, but they are usually a cylindrical or slightly flattened shape. Traditionally, message sticks were passed between different peoples, language groups and even within clans 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. 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. They were referred sometimes called talking-sticks or stick-letters, according to Robert Hamilton Mathews in 1897. The messenger carrying the stick was granted a kind of diplomatic immunity and guaranteed safe passage into another group's territory.
Historical accounts
Anthropologist Alfred Howitt wrote of the Wurundjeri people of the Melbourne area in 1889: Jeannie Gunn wrote about life at a station near the site of the town of Mataranka in the Northern Territory in 1902: 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. The sticks acquired a function as a tool of diplomacy, especially in Northern Australia.
Message Stick is a business owned by Aboriginal Australians, started in 2003. It works closely with the Federal Government to influence Government policy to support economic development, including business ownership and entrepreneurialism.
