- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- One of three sticks for fire marking; drill stick.
- Long description
- One of three sticks for fire marking; drill stick. The stick is irregularly straight and coated with red ochre. [MJD 06/09/2010]
- Geographical reference
- Northern Territory Gulf of Carpentaria Mcarthur River Borroloola
- Cultural groups
- Yanyuwa
- Person
- Field collector Francis James Gillen
- Field collector Walter Baldwin Spencer
- PRM source Walter Baldwin Spencer
- Date / Period
- Date made: 1902
- Date collected
- 1901 - 1902
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1903
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Material Ochre, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Painted
- Dimensions
- Width: max 12 mm, Length 730 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1903.39.52.1 Other numbers: Spencer number 32
- Research and responses
Borroloola is where the Spencer and Gillen expedition was 'marooned' during the 'Wet'. Originally the expedition had planned either to go overland to Queensland or to Darwin but a decision was taken to go to Borroloola but the expected boat to take them to Darwin did not arrive and Spencer and Gillen stayed there for some time before they were 'rescued' by a boat sent at the request of Mrs Spencer. see Mulvaney 'So much that is New' 1985: 212-213. During their stay in Borroloola they carried out some fieldwork (and collecting). See also 'Camp Jottings .. ' by FJ Gillen 1968 South Australian Libraries Board [AP]
S&G 1904: 618 - 21 'There are two distinct methods of making fire in use amongst the central and northern tirbes. One is by means of rubbing a piece of hard over a piece of soft wood with a saw-like movement, the other is by means of twirling one stick on another. The former method is practised among the more southern tribes extending as far north approximately as Powell's Creek. The second is the plan adopted by the Urabunna (Arabana) and by the more northern tribes and also by those inhabiting the country eastwards to the Gulf ..... Amongst the Anula ... the drilling or twirling plan [is] always used. For this purpose two pieces of wood are taken, one of which is rounded off so as to be about one-half or three-quarters of an inch in diameter. This is held upright between the two palms of the hand so that one end rests on the second piece of wood, which is pressed on the ground and held firmly by the feet of the operator. ... When being used there is, first of all, a notch cut to one side at the spot at which the upright stick is going to be twirled upon the horizontal one. This is to allow the smouldering powder produced by the twirling to fall out on to the ground. Usually two men take part in the operation sitting down opposite to one another. First of all one man will take the upright piece and rapidly twirl it round and round. After he has done this a few times the second man will continue the work the great thing being to keep the twirling movement as continuous as possible. Within a minute, as a general rule, the powder, which collects in the small hole and tumbles out by the notch made in the horizontal piece, begins to smoulder and as soon as it does so it is gently blown and a flame produced. As a general rule a little fine sand is placed in the hole in the horizontal piee so as to increase the friction.' [AP 13/1/2000]
This object was collected during an expedition of Central Australia led by Walter Baldwin Spencer and Francis Gillen between 1901 and 1902. However, it should be noted that accompanying them was an Aboriginal man called Erlikilyika. He was 'hired' (receiving no monetary payment) to run their campsites, but actually undertook some of the ethnographic work himself. He could speak Arrernte (his native language), Kaytej (another Aboriginal language), and English. In their personal field-diaries, Spencer and Gillen note that they took days off work, leaving Erlikilyika with "entire charge of the ethnological branch", where he spoke with and recorded the complex beliefs and customs of Aboriginal communities that were not his own (the Kaytetye group in particular). Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing if Erlikilyika collected any of these objects himself but we know that he played a vital role in documenting their meaning and significance, and should therefore be credited for his valuable contributions to the expedition. This information was provided by Fionnuala Bradbury, a Master's student in Archaeology at Newcastle University, as part of her thesis entitled "Erlikilyika and Walter Baldwin Spencer: Indigenous Informants, Ethnographic Analogy, and Archaeological Interpretation". There is an abridged version of the thesis in RDF.
Search terms: Fire, Fire Accessory