talking stick

talking stick (plural talking sticks)

1. A ceremonial stick that grants the holder the right to speak in a group discussion.

   Synonym: speaker's staff

2. (Australia) A piece of wood which is 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, 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.

   • 1903, Ada Janet Peggs, “Notes on the Aborigines of Roebuck Bay, Western Australia”, in Folk-lore‎, volume XIV, London: David Nutt, page 335:

     The same day that he read the talking-stick, he had asked permission to go to his own country, […]

   • 1909, Coo-ee [AKA William Sylvester Walker], “The Promised Land”, in What Lay Beneath‎, 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.