Tagai 2018

Gail Mabo — dancer, actor and visual artist — lives in Townsville, Queensland. She is the daughter of celebrated land rights activist Eddie Koiki Mabo, who succeeded in his landmark Native Title claim over family lands on Mer (Murray Island) 25 years ago. Gail Mabo’s interpretations of her father’s detailed drawings take the form of historic Pacific bamboo navigational maps.

Mabo Case 1 and Mabo Case 2 are maps of Mer, where the lines of bamboo show the contours of the land and mark local villages, clan territories and traditional garden boundaries. Zenadth Kes shows navigational paths from Waiben (Thursday Island) through all the Torres Strait islands to Mer.

‘Tagai’ is the traditional name of the constellation Islanders consult for safe navigation from island to island through the Torres Strait. Its position dictates the timing of seasonal rituals for planting, harvesting and hunting and — importantly for the Mabo family — includes a star within the constellation named in 2015 in honour of Koiki Mabo.

The knowledge of clan boundaries underpins the concept of Tag Mauki-Mauki, meaning ‘do not take what is not yours, your legs must not trespass’ — an important concept that underpins life in the Torres Strait.