Gail Mabo is a Meriam artist from Mer Island in Zenadth Kes, a region also known as the Torres Strait. Her multidisciplinary practice stretches from dance to visual arts and is always grounded in her inherited cultural knowledges. Gail’s star maps, constructed out of bamboo, cotton and shells, illustrate her people’s complex understanding of celestial navigation and have come to define her artistic practice.

Mabo Claim I, Mabo Claim II, Tagai and Zenadth Kes are a series of works by Gail that are rich with artistic, cultural, environmental and historical significance to this part of the world and a powerful reminder of the unending cyclical connection between Country and its caretakers; from stars, to seas, to shores, to soil, to self and back to stars again.

‘I am spiritually guided on my works ... I always sit for a moment and go, “Okay all you old people, I know you’re with me all the time—guide my hands to make sure this is right”.’ 

— Gail Mabo

Tagai

Tagai depicts the constellation of stars that custodians and visitors to Zenadth Kes consult to guide them safely across the seas when travelling from one island to another. The movement of the stars also signals the changing seasons that inform planting, harvesting and hunting cycles. Named after the Creator Being Tagai, the constellation takes the form of a man standing on a canoe whose left hand is formed by the stars of the Southern Cross and holds a spear.

In 2015, one of the stars in the Southern Cross was named Koiki after Gail’s late father, Eddie Koiki Mabo, to mark the 23rd anniversary of the historic Mabo decision (you can learn more about this below). In 2018, her late mother Bonita Mabo would join him in the constellation and a star was named in her honour to acknowledge her staunch work as an educator and activist championing the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Tagai is crucial to navigating not only Country, but also selfhood and purpose in life for Gail and her people: ‘When you follow your Tagai, it means you follow your star, it means you follow the path that leads you where you need to be.’

Mabo Legacy

Mabo Claim I and Mabo Claim II depict maps of Mer Island hand-drawn by Gail’s late father, Eddie Koiki Mabo. Illustrating boundaries of tribal and familial land ownership across the small island, these maps signifying Meriam peoples’ enduring sovereignty would be used as evidence in one of the most significant legal battles to unfold in this part of the world.

Known as the Mabo Case, the action was led by five Meriam people—Eddie Koiki Mabo, Reverend David Passi, Sam Passi, James Rice and Celuia Mapo Sale—against the State of Queensland and the Commonwealth of Australia. Their historic fight for land rights would overturn the doctrine of ‘terra nullius’, meaning ‘nobody’s land’. This belief, established during the seventeenth century, failed to recognise the First Peoples of this place as people, nor our/their complex connection to Country, and was harmfully utilised to legally and morally justify colonisation. The Mabo decision resulted in the passing of the Native Title Act 1993, which would establish a legal avenue for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to reclaim rights to our/their Country in the eyes of Commonwealth law.

The Mabo Case demonstrated Meriam peoples’ enduring and complex connection to Country and continues to be a significant legal and cultural influence on First Peoples’ fight for land rights to this day.

Bamboo, string and shells

The materials used to create these works is a terrific example of how long-standing cultural practices continue to influence Meriam peoples’ art and lived experiences today (and tomorrow). We can appreciate Gail’s series of works as an adaptation of the ‘old style navigational maps’ made from bamboo, string and shells that people visiting Zenadth Kes would read to direct them safely between islands.

Bamboo would be layered in particular formations and etched with lines to indicate the seas’ currents to guide travel. These etchings might also include messaging that would indicate one’s purpose for travel or contain correspondence to share between islands. Gail notably sources the bamboo the works are created with from the same crop she and her father planted and tended during his employment as groundsman at James Cook University, situated on Bindal and Wulgurukaba Country, also known as Townsville, Queensland.

The shells used as markers throughout this series of works also tell an interesting story of exchange between cultures and Countries (‘Countries’ in the First Peoples’ sense of the word; take a look at the Map of Country to get a sense for yourself!). The Black Crow shells featured in her works were collected during a trip to lutruwita (Tasmania) with Pakana artist Lola Greeno, who, like Gail, is known for her work sharing and caring for her people’s living heritage in the form of stunning shell necklaces.

‘I’m honouring my small island in the Torres Straits to that small island in the south, so I’m acknowledging those people in my work.’

— Gail Mabo

Discussion Prompts and Learning Activities

Gail invites you to explore and express your own story and sense of identity by creating a map of your own! As her series of works show, maps represent more than just physical landscape and can tell important stories about the time, place and people from which they come.
This learning activity is inspired by Gail’s teachings. It encourages you to reflect on your own connections with people and place and how they influence who you are and hope to be!

1. Think about all the different parts of your life that have made you the person you are today.

This might include family and friends who have had a big impact on your life, special places that feel like home, somewhere you would like to go in the future, stories or skills passed down to you, big events that you’ll never forget, or anything you feel is important.

• Where have you been?
• Where are you now?
• Where are you going?

You might like to write down or talk about your thoughts with friend or family member for this exercise. During your writing or discussions, reflect:

• How do these different parts connect to one another, and back to you?
• Is a particular person connected to a story or skill passed down to you?
• Does a particular place connect to a particular time?

2. What parts of your story would you like to share in your map?

• You might like to explore a specific story more deeply or create a broad representation of your identity that includes all the different parts of you that you observed in the previous exercise.
• You might like to make one map, or a series of works like Gail made.
• You might like to think of this map as a snapshot in time, or an ongoing work in progress, adding to your artwork as you observe and experience more important influences to your identity.

3. Think about and collect the materials you might use to make this map.

• How might you visually represent these stories?
• How do your chosen materials connect to the story you are sharing?
• What impact do your chosen materials have on Country?

If you chose to make your map with natural materials like Gail, be mindful of your impact while collecting them. Some important practices include:

• Following the cultural protocols of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander custodians of Country you are collecting from. Be courageous but considerate in your creativity.
• Collecting leaves, sticks or seeds that have already fallen from their trees, rather than picking them fresh and cutting their growth cycle short.
• Leaving your surroundings in the same, or better, condition you found them in. For example, while collecting natural materials, you could also pick up any rubbish that is polluting the area. How might this balance what you are giving and taking from Country?
• Taking a moment to thank Country and its custodians for the items you’ve collected.
• Think about how long the natural environment around you has existed and the people who have spent time there—including yourself! What impact do you think these people have had on your surroundings? What stories have unfolded in this place?

4. Gather your self, stories and materials and make your map!

5. Share your map and the story it tells with a friend or family member.

• Did you learn anything new about the story or yourself in your discussions?
• Is their memory of a place or event different to yours? Why do you think this might be?
• Reflect on how and what you chose to represent in your map. Do you think these choices might be different to what you would have done a year ago?
• Do you think your choices will be different in a year from now?
• What can you learn about your friends’ and family’s stories in their maps? What bigger story emerges when you put them all together?

‘This is part of who we are and how we share stories with the kids; by sitting by those campfires and looking at the stars and talking about it.’
— Gail Mabo