Leah Lui-Chivizhe - Masked Histories: Turtle Shell Masks and Torres Strait Islander People

This is number two hundred and six in the
second numbered series of the
Miegunyah Volumes
made possible by the
Miegunyah Fund
established by bequests
under the wills of
Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade.

Miegunyah was the home of
Mab and Russell Grimwade
from 1911 to 1955.

This book provides a masterful telling of the power and stories of the unique turtle shell masks made by Torres Strait Islanders held in British museums. Largely unseen by Islanders as they were taken away in the nineteenth century, through evocative words and images, we follow the paths of the author, and other Islanders, who have meeted and greeted these masks far away and come away with the utmost respect for their creators and new and lasting connections and relationships.

Guided by family and other Islanders, the author eschews the rhetoric of much contemporary writing on objects in museum collections taken in colonial times, and subtly and powerfully explains not only the individual history of their original collection, but the ongoing connections between the masks and Torres Strait Islanders, bringing them metaphorically out of the museum and situating them with Islander stories and histories that resonate in the present.

These works are more than astounding works of art. They embody ancient wisdom and knowledge still used by Islanders today.

Dr Gaye Sculthorpe
Curator, Section Head, Oceania
Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas
The British Museum

THE MIEGUNYAH PRESS

An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited

Level 1, 715 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

www.mup.com.au

First published 2022

Text Leah Lui-Chivizhe, 2022

Design and typography Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2022

This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.

The stories included in this book embody cultural knowledges of the Meriam, Goemulgal and Kulkalgal peoples. The use, by any other person not authorised by these communities, of any cultural knowledge of that community (whether embodied in this book or otherwise) is a breach of the Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) rights of the Meriam, Goemulgal and Kulkalgal peoples. Nothing in this book grants any person not authorised by these communities to disclose, reproduce or otherwise deal with the ICIP interests embodied in or represented by this book.

Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.

Cover design by Pfisterer + Freeman

Text design and typesetting by Cannon Typesetting

Printed in China by 1010 Printing Asia Ltd

9780522877953 (paperback)

9780522877960 (ebook)

For Zandile and Bruce
and in memory of Dimple Bani.