
A title runs over the image of a lone building: 'Muralaguah Buai Cultural Centre, Wickham’. The busy preparation of the celebration of 'The coming of the light’. People coming together, music and dancing. A Torres Strait woman tells how the Torres Strait Islanders are civilized because of the arrival of Christianity to the Islands. Summary by Romaine Moreton.
The Coming of the Light is an important ceremony to the Torres Strait Islander people, and this clip shows the continuation of that tradition, which was taken to the Torres Strait on 1 July 1871 by the Reverend Samuel MacFarlane of the London Missionary Society.
A documentary that uses historical footage, with current interview and observational footage, about the journey of Torres Strait Islander men who moved to the Pilbara to work on the railways and after the job finished stayed on.
In the 1960s, Torres Strait men left their homes to travel to the foreign country of the Pilbara, determined to provide for their family. When the work was over, many returned home, but some did not. Those Torres Strait Islanders that stayed created a community and continued their traditional culture. The juxtaposition of Torres Strait culture against the backdrop of the Pilbara offers a stark contrast, visually, physically, and aurally.
Island Fettlers begins with shots of Darnley Island in the Torres Strait, Far North Queensland, in 1964. The tropical coastline of Darnley Island sets up the visual paradox characterised by country as the story of the Island fettlers unfolds. Darnley Island, coloured by the tones of the ocean and swayed by the wispy sea breeze appeals to the senses as a place that is colourful and imbued with movement. The tones of the Pilbara is intensified by the sense of trapped heat; a different kind of island that is circumvented by vast dry land. In Indigenous cultures, there are many different tribes or nations, and these tribes or nations represent the variation in the landscape itself. Island Fettlers draws upon this understanding, gently reminding us that Australia is a great and varied land, as too are its Indigenous peoples.
Notes by Romaine Moreton
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.