GELAM NGUZU KAZI - DUGONG MY SON (2000 - 2004)

Exxhibition Curator: Adrian Newstead

Exhibition Coordinators: Adrian Newstead and The Australian Art Print Network

Community Liaison: Cecilia Alfonso

Tour Management: Dennis Nona & Michael Kershaw

The first exhibition of limited edition linocut prints by the artists of the Mualgau Mineral Artist Collective featuring stories and legends from Mua Island in the Torres Strait.

Having met Torres Strait Islander artists through Anna Eglitis at the Tropical Far North Queensland College of TAFE in Cairns during the 1990s and discussed their desires with them during the Second National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Conference in Cairns in 1999, Adrian Newstead was commissioned to write the first 5-year management and development plan for their nascent art centre. The first tangible result was a body of prints that comprised the exhibition Gelem Nguzu Kazi–Dugong My Son, created by the artists of the Mualgau Mineral Artist Collective.

Gelam Ngzu Kazi is the name the elders have given this exhibition where 'Gelam' represents the Dugong, the primary totem of the Moa Island community. The exhibition toured Australia and the USA between 2000 and 2004.

Featured Artworks

David Bosun
Gelam Nguzu Kazi - Gelam My Son

  • Long ago at Bulbul on the Eastern side of Mua (Mua Island), lived a young boy, Gelam and his mother, Usar. As Gelam grew to an appropriate age his mother made him a bow, arrow and a water container to use to hunt goeynaw (Torres Strait pigeon). After returning from his hunting trips, Gelam would keep all of the fat pigeons and give all the lean ones to his mother. Each time when Usar cooked her bird she noticed that her fire flames were very small but Gelam’s were big because of all the fat dripping on to the fire from his bird. Seeing this, Usar made a plan to punish him for the trick he was playing on her.

    The next day when Gelam went out hunting to Gerain (tribal area of Mua), Usar covered herself in clay and waited behind a tree where he was hunting for the birds. As Gelam got closer, Usar jumped from behind the tree to scare him off. When he saw Usar he dropped his bow and arrow and started running back to Bulbul. Usar took a shorter route back to the camp and washed off the clay before he returned.

    As Gelam arrived, Usar who was already sitting near her fire pretending she didn’t know what had happened, asked Gelam for the birds. Gelam told her that he had seen a Dhogai (witch, and in fright had dropped all his birds, and left his bow and arrow behind. Usar continued to torment Gelam, until one day when cleaning her hair for head lice, he noticed a patch of clay at the back of one of her ears. Gelam thought to himself: ‘Ah, it was you who was playing these games on me. I’m going to punish you for what you have done to me.”

    The next day Gelam pretended to go hunting for birds. Instead, however, he went to cut a tree and began carving a dugong out of it. After a few days he finished it and took the dugong down to the beach at Gerain to try it in the water. He found it was too light, so he sent the dugong to Mabuaig Island. The next day, he carved another dugong but found it was too heavy so he sent it off to Badu Island. Then he tried a third time and again he found it off balance, so he sent it off to the mainland.

    That night while he was sleeping, his father came to him in a dream. In his dream his father showed him a special kind of leaf to find the right tree for his dugong. The next day Gelam went off again and found the tree his father showed him in his dream. He carved a dugong and tested it in the water. This time it was the right one for him. Ina kaine Gelam “now this is Gelam’s dugong,” he said to himself. He then placed inside of it the best fruit and soil off the island and went back home to his mother.

    The next day as Usar went fishing on the reef, Gelam took his dugong and as he placed it on a rock near the water, he left his nostril print on it. He then jumped in it and pushed off the rock and left his footprint behind. Usar, who was walking along the reef edge at Bulbul had a basket full of fish. Gelam swam to her and when she called out to Gelam to come and catch it. Gelam a Nguzu kazi hi melagia ulail e, dhangal senu ngapa koengaia pasia walmai ima e. “Gelam my son, where are you? There’s a dugong here swimming near the reef.” Gelam again swam towards her and opened the front part of the dugong. Usar saw Gelam in the dugong and he told her that he had found out about her tricks. He told her he was running away.

    Leaving his mother on the reef edge he then turned away and started swimming towards Nagir, but it was too close to her. He returned and swam to Yam, and on to Yorke and then to Darnley but again from all of these islands he could still see his mother standing there and crying at the edge of the reef.

    From Darnley, he saw a little island to the east and swam towards it. After arriving, he turned around and he couldn’t see his mother. Ina lag ngath ngau mudh aimaik, “this place I will make my home.” He lay down next to the island facing toward the east but the sugar gub (North-Easterly wind) was too strong and was choking him as it was rushing up into his nostrils. So he turned around lying southeast and sneezed out two seeds which formed the islands of Davar and Waier. A stingray who was chased by sharks on the reef east of Gelam, swam and found shelter near him and formed the island of Mer. Usar was left standing at the edge of the reef crying for Gelam until the tide came up and covered her. She turned into a rock which can still be seen today. When the tide is low, fresh water flows from the centre of the rock as she continues to cry tears for Gelam, her son who ran away.

    Story as told by Lilian Bosun

Dennis Nona
Tabu A Sapur - Snake and Flying Fox

  • There are many bats that live in the mangroves surrounding Moa Island. The snakes are attracted to this area by the bats which they hunt for food. The snake is also a clan totem for the artist. The locals also eat the bats which are considered to be good medicine, particularly for someone suffering from asthma.

David Bosun
Dying Industry

  • This print is about my concern for the crayfishes and the crayfishing industry in the Torres Strait.

    At the age of six I experienced by first adventure in this industry when my father (Oza Bosun) gave me his spear to spear my first crayfish. Back then, there were lots of crayfish among the reefs. We would only go out for two hours and catch about 760 kilos by only doing free diving. But now all the latest technologies introduced into this industry, such as the hooker (diving compressor), GPS, tide charts and the amount of prawn trawlers operating in our traditional waters are a disadvantage to the Torres Strait crayfishing industry.

    Using these new technologies, divers and prawn trawlers are killing lots of crayfish, even those that are undersized, by taking them from the seabeds before they can even make it to the reef edge for better shelter. Our crayfish industry needs urgent attention from our leaders and the Torres Strait Fisheries Management Authority in order to ensure that the species survives.

    For the benefit our children and our children's children, I believe the industry and the species will only continue to exist if we have the hooker banned, not for 1-2 months, but for a period of 6 months, or maybe a year. We will need to prohibit prawn trawlers and non islanders from fishing in our traditional waters."

    This print is dedicated to the untiring work of my father (Oza Bosun). He was an expert crayfish diver who also played a big part in the Torres Strait fisheries legal framework during his 12 years as Kubin Community Council Chairman.

Dennis Nona
Wakimab (State II)

  • Wakimab was a witch doctor. He lived at Cargaar Point on Saibai Island near Papua New Guinea. Cargaar is a very good fishing ground and one needs to ask permission from Wakimab or he'll get angry if you don't and overturn your boat. Many lives have been lost there over the years. It is not good to go there alone.

    According to legend Wakimab would invite young men to go fishing. It would take about an hour to travel to his beach. He would only invite them at the end of the day so they would have to spend the night, otherwise he would tell them the best fishing was very early in the morning and they should arrive the evening before so they wouldn't have to travel in the night to get there. He built little huts outside the sandbank and insisted that the tide would never reach them. He was a very evil man and tricked young men into staying the night in those huts. He hid a club in his ornate witchdoctor's hat and when it got dark the tide would rise up to those huts. The windows were barred and the young men could not escape him. Wakimab was also very big and powerful and when the water rose up high enough and the youngsters were up to their necks, he would open the door and bash them unconscious and cut their heads off with his gi tiad (bamboo knife). He used the heads for magic, storing them in a field. He killed many groups of young men this way, time and again.

    One day a group set out to fish at Cargaar. With them was a sick man with boils and sores all over his body. The group chased him away but he followed from a distance, and, climbing a tall tree, watched until nightfall when he fell asleep. In the morning the silent stalker saw Wakimab stacking the heads of his friends beneath the very trees he had slept in. Horrified, when he finally had a chance, he crept down the tree and ran back to the village to raise the alarm. Warriors returned shortly and found Wakimab waiting for them. They hit him on the head, concussing him. Bleeding, he crawled into the sea, creating a long sandbank. He turned into a stone at the end of Cargaar Point. To this day, when Papua New Guinea fishermen arrive, unfamiliar with the area, their boats capsize in this place where there are plenty of crocodiles and sharks.

    Story as told by Job Kusu

Victor Motlop
Seven Blind Brothers I (left) and II (right)

  • This is a traditional Mua Island story.

    Seven blind brothers lived with their father. When their father died they kept his skull according to Island custom.

    Just above the hillside nearby lived a Dhogai (witch). Every day the blind brothers set out on their canoe to spear fish in the reef. They all wore warkai (feathers) on their heads. The feathers were to help them to catch fish. Every time these magic feathers vibrated on their heads it indicated a fish approaching and this would signal for them to throw the spear at the fish.

    Time after time while on their way home the Dhogai played her tricks with the brothers by placing floating logs in front of the canoe and quickly stealing the larger fish, leaving them only the smaller ones.

    On one particular night the eldest brother had a dream. In his dream a vision of his father came to him and said: "Go to Baban Kupi, you'll see a turtle nest there, dig the eggs and cook them on hot coals. When the eggs are cooked, place them on leaves and finally smash the eggs on your eyes so you can see because the Dhogai is stealing fish from your canoe."

    The next day the eldest brother told the others that their father had come to him in a dream and told them to go to Baban Kupi and complete his demands. So they all set off to Baban Kupi and dug up the turtle eggs and cooked them.

    When the eggs were cooked, one after another they smashed the eggs on their eyes. The blind brothers were shocked and amazed that they could see and were no longer blind. After that they set out to the reef. That day they speared more fish than any of the previous trips.

    On the way back the eldest brother told the others to pretend to be blind when the Dhogai approached them. As they were about to arrive home the Dhogai intercepted them to steal their fish again. Suddenly they all opened their eyes and said: "You're the one who always steals our fish and now we will kill you." The Dhogai said: "Good job! I stole your fish the whole time you were blind."

    The blind brothers ignored the Dhogai and speared her to death. Today you can see the form of rocks which represents the characters of this story. They are all at Bapu on Mua Island, the seven blind brothers and their father's skull and the wicked Dhogai.

    Story as told by Lizzie Narwia