Photographed by Trish Barnard.
Accession Number: QE26160
Museum: Queensland Museum
Date Acquired: 1989
Collector: Gladys Jean Henry (1921-2010)
Date Collected: 1960s – 1970s
Where from: Murray Upper
Description: L170 x W30mm. Wood with natural pigment (ochre). Called Mawaga by Jirrbal and Girramay people. Without a written language, message sticks were a valuable tool for communicating between different groups. Some carried fine incisions, others occasionally had painted designs. The message conveyed may be interpreted differently by members of the same cultural group depending on spiritual knowledge. Generally very small for ease of carrying, they were shaped short flat, round or square. The marks may have aided memory, or the carved notches and symbols may have referred to the number of days before or after a particular event; the number of groups involved; or items required for ceremonial purposes. Message sticks were also used as a ‘passport’ to ensure safe passage when travelling through another group’s country. This object was part of Gladys Henry’s (1921-2010) collection.
QM acquired this object by transfer from JCU Collection. Originally donated to JCU by the Australia Council. In 1979 Gladys Henry sold the collection of 588 artefacts to the Aboriginal Arts Board of Australia Council for $5,800 who then deposited the collection with the Material Culture Unit at James Cook University. A decade later in 1989 the Australia Council then gifted the collection to James Cook University. This gesture was celebrated with an official handover on 10 April 1990 attended by dignitaries from both organisations, Gladys Henry and local traditional owner representatives, with performances by Waddama Dancers. The collection is still one of the most important collections to be assembled after Walter Roth travelled through the Cardwell and Tully region in the early 1900s, and contains excellent examples of material culture production that continued well into the 1970s. Some of Henry’s collection is also held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Her daughter Valerie Keenan is the Arts Manager at Girringun Aboriginal Art Centre in Cardwell.
See: ‘Gladys Henry’ authored by Trish Barnard
http://www.jcucollections.org/?page_id=797
Contact: Chantal Knowles, Head of Cultures and Histories, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, QLD 4001 AUSTRALIA
Phone: (07) 3842 9038