The Australian Aboriginal counting system was used together with

message stick ''Message Stick'' was an Australian television series about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lifestyles, culture and issues. History The weekly half-hour show began screening in 1999 on ABC Television. It featured profile stories, inte ...

s sent to neighbouring clans to alert them of, or invite them to,

corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the ...

s, set-fights, and

ball games This is a list of ball games and ball sports that include a ball as a key element in the activity, usually for scoring points. Games that include balls Ball sports fall within many sport categories, some sports within multiple categories, inclu ...

. Numbers could clarify the day the meeting was to be held (in a number of "moons") and where (the number of camps' distance away). The messenger would have a message "in his mouth" to go along with the message stick. A common misconception among non-Aboriginals is that Aboriginals did not have a way to count beyond two or three. However, Alfred Howitt, who studied the peoples of southeastern Australia, disproved this in the late nineteenth century, although the myth continues in circulation today. The system in the table below is that used by the Wotjobaluk of the Wimmera (Howitt used this tribal name for the language called

Wergaia The Wergaia or Werrigia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Mallee (Victoria), Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-Western Victoria (Australia), Victoria, made up of a number of clans. The people were also known as the Maligundidj ( ...

in the AIATSIS language map). Howitt wrote that it was common among nearly all peoples he encountered in the southeast: "Its occurrence in these tribes suggests that it must have been general over a considerable part of Victoria". As can be seen in the following tables, names for numbers were based on body parts, which were counted starting from the little finger. In his manuscripts, Howitt suggests counting commenced on the left hand.

Wotjobaluk counting system

:: A similar system but with one more place was described by Howitt for the

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language, Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of ...

, speakers of the

Woiwurrung The Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi-wurrung, Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, and Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance. The Woiwurrung people's territory in Central Victoria ex ...

language, in information given to Howitt by the elder

William Barak William Barak ( March 1823 – 15 August 1903), named Beruk by his parents, the "last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe", was the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, the pre-colonial inhabitants of present-day Melbo ...

. He makes it clear that once counting has reached "the top of the head. From this place the count follows the equivalents on the other side."

Other languages

References

Bibliography

*Howitt, A.W. 1904. The native tribes of south-east Australia. London: McMillan and Co. Reprinted. 1996. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. pp. 696–699 describe the system in Wotjobaluk, while p700-703 describe the Wurundjeri system. {{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Aboriginal Enumeration Australian Aboriginal words and phrases Numerals

Wotjobaluk counting system

Other languages

See also

References

Bibliography