Talking stick

[2] Akan chiefs in Western Africa have a tradition of speaker's staffs capped with gold-leafed finials.

[3] At gatherings, especially potlatches, a chief or their designated speaker holds the talking stick and makes announcements.

[5] Talking sticks are a contemporary Northwest Coast art form with great symbolic importance.

Tsimshian woodcarver David A. Boxley was commissioned to sculpt a crown of a talking stick for the 1990 Goodwill Games, that incorporated symbolism of the United States and Russia.

In 1988 Kwakwaka'wakw Richard Hunt carved the world's largest totem pole featuring a Cedar Man wielding a 4.3 meter (14 foot) tall talking stick.