torresstraitislander

King Plates describes and illustrates a large collection of Aboriginal gorgets, also called king or brass plates. These were presented to perceived 'chiefs', faithful servants, and to the especially courageous, by governors and landholders. In other words, they were given to anyone who helped in some way to ease the white settlers' progress in the new colonies. They had already been used in North America for the same purpose. Source: aiatsis.gov.au/publication/35807

Introduction to King Plates: A History of Aboriginal Gorgets by Jakelin Troy, 1993 In 19th and early 20th century Australia, Aboriginal people who distinguished themselves in the eyes of the non-Aboriginal population were honored with an inscribed metal plaque to hang around the neck. These plaques have been known by many names but were most often called ‘King’, ‘breast’ or ‘brass’ plates. However, in this book they are called ‘gorgets’ because they were made not only for men and not only for people who were seen to be leaders. The name was also chosen because the plaques were modified copies of the gorgets worn as badges of office by infantry officers in Australia until 1832. In spite of the important role Aboriginal gorgets played in the development of social relationships between Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people in colonial Australia, they have not been the subject of any substantial publications. Commentary on the gorgets is extremely sparse. The gorgets are tangible physical links with Aboriginal people who were intimately involved in the colonial history of Australia. The names and affiliations inscribed on the gorgets are particularly important as documentary records of Aboriginal history. Ancestral connections with many contemporary Australians may be established through clues that the inscriptions provide. Source: www.nma.gov.au/explore/features/aboriginal-breastplates/i...

Wanhtharra nyundu! Welcome to our country! Cooktown lies in Guugu Yimithirr country, a tribal nation that stretched from the Annan River, south of Cooktown, to Princess Charlotte Bay in the north. This is one of the Cape’s forty-one tribal nations, each having its distinct language, history, culture, bush foods and bush medicines. The Guugu Yimithirr nation was divided into thirty-two clan (or extended family) areas, with boundaries defined by geographical landmarks. Aboriginal people lived in these small clan groups, looking after their lands, its sacred sites and special story places, just as people now look after their house and family photos. Today Guugu Yimithirr people maintain their strong links with the land and its special places. The word Bama (pronounced Bumma) is widely used throughout Cape York to mean an Aboriginal person, but in Guugu Yimithirr, the word simply means ‘person’ regardless of nationality or race. The Guugu Yimithirr name for Cooktown is Gungardie, after the word gun-gaar – a type of crystal quartz found in the area which was used for cutting the chest skin for initiations. Source: www.cooktownandcapeyork.com/do/history/aboriginalculturec...

Aboriginal body painting or art and personal ornamentation is an ancient tradition that carries deep spiritual significance for the Australian Indigenous People. Their cultural rituals including body painting differ between Aboriginal Tribes and topographic locations. It is related to spiritual matters and is very creative in character. The specific designs and motifs used by the Aboriginals reveal their relationships to their family group, social position, tribe, precise ancestors, totemic fauna, and tracts of land. There are very strict guidelines to how the body painting and adornment is carried out and an Aboriginal person is not allowed to just use any motives or adornment in their transformation. They must follow traditional, respected patterns. The person adorned with the body paint often takes on the spiritual part of their ancestor dancing, immersed in their character. In northwest Queensland, men rub their foreheads with charcoal and paint a white band from either eyebrow down the front of the ear and along the shoulders and arms. White and red bands are painted across the chest and the rest of the body is covered in red. Aboriginals use different items and ways to decorate the body include scars, feathers, shells, teeth, ornaments, face paint, and body paint. Symbols are greatly used and can represent many things about the person who uses it. It is often used to tell a spiritual story. Source: www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/a...

The community of Cherbourg, formerly known as Barambah, is located in the South Burnett district of south-east Queensland. According to research conducted by anthropologist Norman Tindale, Cherbourg is situated on the traditional lands of the Wakka Wakka Aboriginal people.[ In 1843, Barambah station was taken up by the pastoralists J S Ferriter and Edmund Uhr. The arrival of the pastoralists led to the dispossession of local Aboriginal people and widespread frontier violence. In the Wide Bay and Burnett districts, 28 squatters and shepherds were killed by Aborigines between 1847 and 1853. By 1850, the squatters had called for Native Police protection; in the interim, reprisal killings by the squatters continued. By 1853, a report from the Burnett District stated that: ‘this district is looking well, the blacks are perfectly quiet, sheep all healthy, and greatly on the increase…the native police are most efficient.’ [9] After the hand over to the Queensland Government, living conditions and facilities at Barambah failed to improve and the Aboriginal residents of Barambah lacked adequate housing, sanitation, education and medical facilities. They were issued basic rations by the government, but the quality of the food was often poor.[16] As a result of these factors, Barambah suffered a high death rate in its initial decades, and epidemics of tuberculosis, whooping cough, dengue fever and measles were regular occurrences at the reserve.[17 Government control was also increasingly exerted through the establishment of the dormitory system for Aboriginal children at Barambah. The Reformatory Schools (Industrial) Act 1865 authorised the government to remove ‘neglected’ Aboriginal children from their families and raise them in state controlled dormitories. The first girls’ dormitory building at Barambah was built in 1909 and a boys’ dormitory was completed in 1910. The first dormitories at Barambah had no beds or mattresses and the children slept on the floor. Over time, the dormitory system at Barambah was expanded to include older girls and mothers with young children. Source: www.qld.gov.au/firstnations/cultural-awareness-heritage-a...

.All Saints Anglican Church is a heritage-listed church at Darnley Island, Torres Strait Island Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1919 to 1938. n 1871 representatives of the London Missionary Society (LMS) arrived in the Torres Straits on the schooner Surprise,[2][3][a] which had been chartered by the LMS,[4][5] after the French Government had demanded their removal from the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia in 1869. They decided to expand into the Torres Straits and New Guinea.[1] They were represented by two Englishmen, Revs S. Macfarlane and A.W. Murray,[6][7] and eight Lifu (Loyalty Islander) evangelists: Tapeso, Elia, Mataika, Guchong, Kerisidui, Wauaded, Sevine and Josaia, and their wives.[1][8] The missionaries reached Erub (Darnley Island) on 1 July 1871, an event that came to be known as the "Coming of the Light". Dabad, one of the tribal elders of the island, met them at Kemus Beach. Dabad befriended the missionaries and introduced them to Amani, another tribal elder, and the rest of the Erub Islanders. His role in the bringing of Christianity to the Torres Straits is memorialised by Dabad's Monument at Badog. The inscription reads "In loving memory of Dabad 1871: A man who denied his tribal laws and accepted the good news of salvation".[1][9] South Sea Islanders had an important role working in the beche-de-mer and pearl farming industries in the Torres Straits and had established trading relations with the islanders long before the arrival of HMS Surprise. Rotuma Islanders working there, who had encountered Christian missions at Rotuma and believed the missionaries to be cruel, evil and capable of selling people into slavery, reportedly warned the people of Erub against them.[1] Thorngreen, a European man, was living on Erub and accompanied Darnley Islanders on board HMS Surprise the following day. As it was a Sunday, the missionaries held a service in Lifu language. This was the first recorded service in the Torres Straits (although Rev Jagg would have undoubtedly held services during his 12 months at Somerset). Two native evangelists, Mataika and Guchong, and their wives, were left on Erub on 5 July.[1] HMS Surprise went on to Tudu (Warrior) Island.The missionaries were welcomed at Tudu by Captain Banner, who had an established pearl shell fishery on the island. John Joseph, one of his employees, travelled with the missionaries as an interpreter to Dauan Island on 6 July.[1] Finding that most of the islanders were away on Saibai Island, they were taken to Saibai by Nudai, the chief of Dauan. Two Lifu evangelists, Josaia and Sevine, were left at Saibai and Dauan, respectively. It was 1881 before the first substantial building for Christian worship was constructed at Saibai. In the early 20th century, it was replaced by the Holy Trinity Church, on which construction began about 1919 and was completed by about 1938.[1] Additional Lifu evangelists were left on Yorke and Yam Islands. With the English clergy still aboard, HMS Surprise sailed to the newly established settlement at Somerset.[1] The London Missionary Society (LMS) established temporary headquarters at Somerset, from where they could expand their operations into other Torres Strait Islands and the mainland of New Guinea. Between 1871 and 1878 at least 131 Pacific Islander teachers, mainly from the Loyalty Islands, Cook Islands, Niue, Society Islands and Rurutu, taught in the Torres Straits and New Guinea, along with their wives and families. Only four European missionaries taught in the same period.[1] In 1872 the LMS revisited selected islands in the Torres Straits. They reported that the missionaries who had been left on Dauan and Saibai had been accepted into the local tribes and had been given land by the local chiefs. They reported weekly services were being held at Erub (Darnley), and were conducted in a pidgin form of the local language, Kala Lagaw Ya.[1] Eventually a full creole language developed in the Torres Strait Islands. The Queensland Government annexed the islands of the Torres Straits within 60 miles (97 km) of the mainland in 1872, followed by the remainder of the islands in 1879. It feared that rival colonial powers could take control of what had become an important shipping route. Annexation also gave the government control over the increasingly lucrative beche-de-mer and pearl shelling economies and, in particular, regulating the use of Torres Strait and South Sea Islander labour in these industries. The government moved its administration centre from Somerset to Thursday Island in 1877. But the lack of government resources, such as a regular patrol boat, meant that effectively administration of the islands was conducted by the London Missionary Society.[1] The Society established the Papuan Institute on the island of Mer as a theological facility to train Torres Strait Islanders as Episcopal priests. The Society selected the students. It closed the Institute in 1888, but by then a number of local priests had been trained who were familiar with both formal missionary teaching and the local Islander customs.[1] By 1890 the London Missionary Society began to reduce its operations in the Torres Straits. Conversion on the islands had been successful, and they considered Papua their next area of endeavour. A full-time superintendent on the islands was no longer deemed necessary. The incumbent priest, Rev J Chalmers, moved to Saguane in the Fly River in New Guinea. The Queensland Government appointed teacher/supervisors on various islands. In 1904 the Protector of Aborigines assumed comprehensive control of Islanders' lives under the Queensland Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897.[1] Worship on various islands was led by the Islander priests who had been trained at the Papuan Institute. Annual inspections were made by LMS representatives travelling from New Guinea.[1] In 1914 the secretary of the London Missionary Society requested that the Bishop of Carpentaria, Gilbert White, take over the missionary work in the Torres Strait due to financial pressure. The Australian Board of Missions in November 1914 accepted this and the Anglican Church assumed responsibility for the Torres Strait Mission. All the leases granted to the LMS, including the buildings, were transferred to the Anglican Church.[1] Soon after this transfer, the Anglican Church instituted annual "Coming of the Light" celebrations, as a tribute to the London Missionary Society and perhaps as a way of ensuring continuity of worship. This anniversary continues to be celebrated annually by Torres Strait Islanders, both in the Strait and in Torres Strait Islander communities on the Australian mainland. Kemus Beach, on Erub, is a particularly important center for these Coming of the Light celebrations. This was the site of the first contact between Torres Strait Islanders and representatives of the London Missionary Society. That event is memorialised by a Coming of the Light monument, consisting of a 3.5-metre (11 ft) high white cross standing in a ship named Surprise as its base.[1] Church, 1934 In 1919 the All Saints Church was constructed at the former site of the original London Missionary Society mission house and school. Locally produced lime from burnt coral and basalt was used and the work was done under the direction of Manai, an Erub Islander, and Ware, a South Sea Islander. It was originally known as the Ziona church.[1] In 1963 the Church of England, now the Anglican Church, remodelled this building with limestone from surrounding coral reefs. The roofline was raised and internal walls extended. Erosion of the beach over time has threatened the preservation of the building. In 1976 a stone sea wall was constructed approximately 15 metres (49 ft) from the building in an effort to protect it from erosion from the strong tides.[1] Description Church, 1996 All Saints Church is a mass concrete structure with a timber framed red corrugated asbestos cement and galvanized steel roof, located 5–15 metres (16–49 ft) from Badog Beach on the south west side of Erub (Darnley) Island in the Torres Straits.[1] . Internal walls between the nave and the wings of the building are rendered white and feature columned arches. The floor is concrete.[1] The facade of the building, facing east, is decorated with a niche, projecting columns and beams, frieze and other architectural features. The main entrance is on the southern side of the building, through one of the side wings. External walls of the side wings are buttressed at the corners and intermediary points. The building is located on a small level area between the beach and the northeast headland of Badog Beach. The vegetation includes mature coconut palms and a natural forest setting.[1] All Saints Church, Erub (Darnley) Island, survives as important evidence of the development of missionary activity in the Torres Straits and serves as a focus for the annual July 1 "Coming of the Light" festival that celebrates the arrival of the London Missionary Society in the Torres Straits in 1871.[1] Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Anglican_Church,_Darnley...