IDNO

P.840.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Ulai (side) Mer.”

Profile portrait of Ulai, a Meriam man who was an important informant for the Expedition, particularly relating to Malo-Bomai.
He is sitting side on to the camera and wears a beard and moustache and a striped Chinese-style shirt. His ears have been cut in the customary style. [Jude Philp 18/3/1999, updated JD 24/5/2011]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Torres Strait; Mer

Cultural Affliation

Torres Strait Islander

Named Person

Ulai

Photographer

Wilkin, Anthony

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, 1898 - 1899]

Date

1898

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon CollectionTorres Strait Island Expedition

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Printed in Reports IV: Plate I, fig 5. with the caption “Ulai, Mer (p.10)” with a cross reference to ear piercing. [Jude Philp 18/3/1999]

Named Person: Ulai was an important informant for the Expedition, particularly relating to Malo-Bomai and he is pictured in many of the photographs in that series. [Jude Philp 18/3/1999]

Context: This type of photograph served the dual purpose of being a momento/studio portrait for the sitter and a record of the sitter for the physical anthropological and ethnographic work of the Expedition; some portraits were taken in exchange for assistance with psychological testing (Myers 1898). [Jude Philp, 2/1998 - 3/2000]