Message sticks: Long-distance communication in Indigenous Australia

信息棒是一种有标记的木制物品，曾经在澳大利亚土著居民中用于在社区之间传递重要信息。这个计画的目的是要回答一个核心问题：讯息棒在原住民长距离通讯中扮演什么角色？利用档案证据和在Top End的原始田野调查，该项目旨在成为第一个以经验为基础的信息棒实践研究。该项目希望将信息棒定义为一类物质文化，解释其交流动态，产生新的跨文化见解，并加强研究机构、博物馆和土著文化组织之间的合作。

Message sticks are marked wooden objects that were once used throughout Indigenous Australia to convey important information between communities. The intended outcome of this project is to answer a central question: What role did message sticks play in Indigenous long-distance communication? Drawing on archival evidence and original fieldwork in the Top End, the project aims to be the first empirically grounded study of message sticks as a practice. The project expects to define message sticks as a class of material culture, explain their communicative dynamics, generate new cross-cultural insights, and strengthen collaborations between research institutions, museums and Indigenous cultural organisations.