R O B E R T
Known as This Time – the present and Before Time... Modern Torres Strait history could not have happened outside of this frame, the Coming of the Light.”
Torres Strait Enlightenment: 150th Anniversary of Coming of the Light 1 JULY —— 28 AUGUST 2021 A STATEMENT BY THE ARTIST
TOMMY PAU
N O R T H
My take on Torres Strait history is as an informed student of politics. My initial search was for pride and self-esteem in Torres Strait history that I knew was there, but not commonly promoted as facts of Torres Strait history. To only hear emotional fallacies and community oral gossip that needs burden of proof to validate moral narratives that over-showed great achievements of a people obscure in the north of Queensland - the only region bordering another nation, Papua New Guinea. I do not discredit or discard oral history and the atrocious acts of merchant’s vices, followed by conservative paternalistic bureaucratic government, that did not have the liberal values of Chester and Douglas, but I have come to realise that the biological and psychological equivocalness and psycho-semantics, are at times emotional fallacies and pseudo political wranglings, that cloud the achievements of what Torres Strait Islanders did in the settlement of the state of Queensland and Australia.
Robert Tommy Pau, Thawi (Brother in Law) (detail), 2021, linocut on somerset velvet white 300gsm 100% cotton, 77.7 x 59.5 cm, courtesy of the artist
Enlightenment has the connotation of knowing oneself. The title of this exhibition asserts that Torres Strait Enlightenment is how Torres Strait Islanders looked at their situation and circumstance in the 1800’s and negated their resilience from the mercantile commercial world that was obsessed with resources raiding.
an oral history alone. Oral accounts are part of the understanding of the time and context of individuals within local histories. However, the eventualities of global history are inevitable. Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution (a change in practice not conflict against nature is what my perception of these movements were as anthropocene using the earth’s natural bounty for its survival) as they have created modern societies, for example electricity.
Amanie, Chief of Erub (Darnley Island) had the enlightened intelligence to recognise the salvation that the missionaries would bring – saving them from mercantile commercial exploitation, Here are the fundamental abuse and oppression. institutions of the Enlightenment that were evident in the Torres I believe that those who do not Strait: see this are denying our leaders their negated intellectual wisdom • School – first religious studies and then civil education in saving our people from (government school) exploitation. • Governance – first theocratic government and then liberal In my opinion, this act lead to representative democracy what became a very progressive region in such a short time - from • Market economy – marine pre-1871 Palaeolithic subsistence resources and labour • Law and order – Island Council existence, to global industrial and Island Court. capitalism post 1871, to the present modern contemporary liberal representative democratic When you look at Torres Strait Enlightenment, we can clearly see law based civil society. these institutions. Coming of the Light is a communicative event that frames The London Missionary Society and Government Resident instituted: the modern history of the Torres Strait. Modern Torres Strait history • Theocratic governance, and later could not have happened outside in 1877 Henry Chester instituted a civic governance called the of this frame. Mamoose system. It was a Through the oral anecdotes I have hereditary chieftain system of heard and hear, I have tried to put governance, which appointed to into context within this frame and indirect civic leadership. They not frame Torres Strait history as were the rightful decision makers.
