Embodied Knowledge: Moilang (Rosie) Ware

The vibrant colours of Moilang (Rosie) Ware’s largest and most personal handprinted linocut textile, Ngau Buai 2022, represent an intermarriage of cultures: the blue, green, black and white of the Torres Strait flag, and additional yellow and red of the Kanak flag, an official flag of New Caledonia.

Ngau Buai, which translates to ‘my heads-of-family’, charts Ware’s family history from her South Sea Islander great-grandfather Ned Cutay Ware and his two younger brothers Jack Ware and Albert Wamo Ware, who arrived in Australian territory in 1874.

While thousands of South Sea Islanders were brought to Queensland as indentured labourers on plantations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this was not the case for the Ware family. Their arrival via the Torres Strait indicated their involvement in the early fishing and pearling industry, although the details are murky. Ware has been determined to research her family history despite the absence of government records, and this artwork is part of her journey.

The Ware family story is one of migration and resilience, tracking across the ocean and across Ngau Buai. The fabric interweaves important dates, places and people for future generations to celebrate and honour.

Feature image: Moilang (Rosie) Ware's Ngau Buai 2022, installed for 'Embodied Knowledge', QAG, August 2022 / Purchased 2023 with funds from Anne Best through the QAGOMA Foundation / © Rosie Ware / Photograph: N Harth, QAGOMA