page_title: Talking stick
hierarchical_section_title: Talking stick
caption_attribution_description: English: Curtis photograph of a Kwakwaka'wakw (Northwest US) tribesman is shown with a talking stick. Alternate description: "Hamasaka in Tlu Wulahu costume with Speaker’s Staff - Qagyuhl, British Columbia, approximately 1914. Elders played a key role in the education of Aboriginal children. Library and Archives Canada, Edward S. Curtis, Edward Curtis’s The North American Indian collection, C-020826."
context_page_description: The talking stick, also called a speaker's staff, is an instrument of aboriginal democracy used by many tribes, especially those of indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast in North America. The talking stick may be passed around a group, as multiple people speak in turn, or used only by leaders as a symbol of their authority and right to speak in public.
  Akan chiefs in Western Africa have a tradition of speaker's staffs capped with gold-leafed finials. These emerged in the 19th century as a symbol of the holder's power.
  Carved ceremonial talking sticks called tokotoko in Maori are used as symbols of authority in formal public speaking events throughout New Zealand.
context_section_description: The talking stick, also called a speaker's staff, is an instrument of aboriginal democracy used by many tribes, especially those of indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast in North America. The talking stick may be passed around a group, as multiple people speak in turn, or used only by leaders as a symbol of their authority and right to speak in public.
  Akan chiefs in Western Africa have a tradition of speaker's staffs capped with gold-leafed finials. These emerged in the 19th century as a symbol of the holder's power.
  Carved ceremonial talking sticks called tokotoko in Maori are used as symbols of authority in formal public speaking events throughout New Zealand.
caption: A Kwakwaka'wakw man with a talking stick, photo by Edward S. Curtis
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