IDNO

N.22801.ACH2

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.1148.ACH1: “Dugong-spearing platform, Mabuiag. Erected for A.C.H. to photograph, not actually used for harpooning. Suspended from it is a wooden model of a dugong used as a charm to attract dugong. This charm is now in the Museum.”

View from the shore of a Neet or Nath (Dugong-spearing platform) made from wood on which Ned Waria, the mamoose (headman) of Mabuiag, is standing holding a wap (harpoon) attached to a large coil of rope. Attached to the underside of the platform near the man’s foot is a wooden model of a dugong used as a charm to attract dugong. This charm is now in the Museum. The platform was erected for A.C.H. to photograph and not actually used for harpooning. [Jude Philp 23/2/1999, updated JD 21/4/2011]

Physical Condition: Silvery-brown discolouration on left bottom. Scratches in the emulsion - possibly to give the effect of ripples of water as any horizontal scratches have been re-touched. Black/grey marks on right edge. Bottom left corner chipped. February 1999.

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Torres Strait; Mabuiag [Mabuyag]

Cultural Affliation

Torres Strait Islander

Named Person

Ned Waria

Photographer

Haddon, Alfred Cort

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [Torres Strait, 1888 - 1889]

Date

18 September 1888 - 26 October 1888

Collection Name

Torres Strait Island ExpeditionHaddon Collection

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Glass Negative Halfplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in an envelope marked C43/37/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C43/ by the cataloguer. The envelope is now re-housed in Neg. Env. Box 8 which is stored in Storage Box B in the Photo Archive room.

Related Archive: Referenced in notebook titled ‘List of Torres-Straits Photographs. 1888 - 1889. A.C. Haddon’, “72. Neet, dugong platform, standing. Mabuiag.” [JD 20/4/2011]

Date: Haddon arrived at Mabuiag 18/9/1888 and left 26/10/1888 (Journal 1888: 41-62). [J. Philp 23/2/1999]

Publication: Image published in Reports IV: Plate XXIII, fig. 1. [J. Philp 23/2/1999]

Related Archive: Neet or Nath built at Haddon’s instigation after the dugong hunting trip (e.g. N.22793.ACH2). He describes the photographing as “I had to take the photograph just before sundown and so it is not successful - furthermore I had to stand in the sea to get near enough to it” (1888: 58). [J. Philp 23/2/1999]

Related Archive: In his 1898 journal Haddon identifies the man “you remember the photo I took last time of a man on a dugong platform - well - it was Waria who made it for me and whome I photographed on the top of it” (1898: 229). [J. Philp 23/2/1999]

Related Image: Otto Finsch reproduced this image, along with P.1149.ACH1, as a watercolour and published it in O. Finsch, ‘Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der westlichen Südsee’ [‘Contributions to the ethnology of the western Pacific’], original images, Pl. 146. IV. Natives, Pl. III, and captioned "Dugong hunt; Mabiak (Jervis Isl.), Torres Str. 1. Man with harpoon and slain dugong. 2. Man with harpoon on platform." [Source: 'Between wealth and poverty: Otto Finsch on Mabuyag, 1881' by Hilary Howes. In Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture Volume 8 Part 1, 2015, p.233, JD 06/01/2021]