talking stick
Appearance
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]talking stick (plural talking sticks)
- A ceremonial stick that grants the holder the right to speak in a group discussion.
- Synonym: speaker's staff
- (Australia) A piece of wood which is used by aboriginal Australians as part of or a form of communication either by being carved or by another method.
- Synonyms: message stick, stick letter
- 1901, R. H. Mathews, “Pictorial Art Among the Australian Aborigines”, in Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of Great Britain[1], volume XXXIII, London: Harrison and Sons, page 304:
- These "talking sticks" appear to have been made according to some conventional design known among the tribes using them.
- 1909, Coo-ee [AKA William Sylvester Walker], “The Promised Land”, in What Lay Beneath[3], London: John Ouseley, page 168:
- Since that time I've put a mark or two on trees telling the news to the Wàddygalos in the talking stick language, but I expect they knew all about it.