Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card reads [printed in black ink]: 'Lithograph with painted detail in brown and green. Print shows a group of warriors with headdresses (dheri) carrying dugong spears (wap). Below them a traditional Torres Strait hourglass drum overpainted in brown. Above is a dugong, overpainted in green, whose shape is reflected in the background of an island. A man stands against a night sky, before the island, on a dugong hunting platform (nath) with wap in hand. Print is titled 'Kain kazil ngurpaik', signed A. Tipti ' 94, 7/20.
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Display)
' Exhibited: 'Torres Strait Islanders: An Exhibition Marking the Centenary of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Exhibition' at UCMAA, July 1998 to December 2000, with following label " Kain Kazil Ngurpaik. Alick Tipoti - Lino cut print 1994. Central image of a group of warriors wearing dhari (headdresses) and holding dugong whap (spears). In front of them is a warup (drum). Behind the warriors is a large dugong. In the background is a man holding a whap and standing on a dugong hunting platform. c. J. Philp 1996.1677." F. Veys, 7/8/2006'
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Acquisition Details)
Aleck Tipoti is one of the many young artists who have carried out training on the mainland. His distinctive style includes the use of a block-shaped dhari emphasising the hunting/warrior tradition of the past, and white lines against the black background symbolising the continued guidance through oral traditions from the elders. He says that the uses both written historic material and discussions with his elders for the material of his work. This print was bought in a small gallery on Thursday Island where Alick Tipoti sends much of his work from studies at Australia National University, Canberra.
Event Date 1996
Author: rachel hand

Context (Related Documents)
Catalogue card reads [printed in black ink]: A description of the work by the artist is attached to the object saying 'Kain Kazil Ngurpaik'. At night the young men go through a traditional buringin ceremony. The young and old assemble together underneath a zarzar (a hut built of coconut leaves). As the young men go through the process of anointing their waps (harpoons) with coconut oil, the old men beat their drums while singing. These young men set themselves onto the platforms which were built at low tide, and wait. Underneath the platforms, a carved stone dugong hangs. It is thought to direct the dugongs towards the hunters. As the tide comes in, the dugongs come in to feed on the seagrass. Before the moon disappears over the horizon, the dugongs are harpooned and carried up to the village. A young man returning with a dugong is now recognised as a succesful hunter. Esso (thankyou)'.


Event Date 1996
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Display)
'Exhibited: 'Torres Strait Islanders: An Exhibition Marking the Centenary of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Exhibition' at UCMAA, July 1998 to December 2000.'
Event Date 17/2/2013
Author: Rachel Hand