IDNO

LS.109307.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Mer, Murray Is.
Earth-ovens, or "AME".
5. Women removing sand fr. oven. (note mat placed over food).
6. Ditto, sand & mat removed.
7. and food displayed.
(3 slides)." [manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.920.ACH1: "Copper Maori, opened, Mer."

A small group outside gathered around a pile of rocks and leaves (earth oven). From right to left: Boged; Bablu; Awri; ?Charlie; Anai; Sam; Gisu; Adau; ?Wasalgi; Barsa; Palau. In the background is thick garden vegetation. [Jude Philp 21/5/1999, description from record N.23179.ACH2, JD 13/03/2020]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Oceania Melanesia; Australia; Torres Strait; Mer [Murray Islands]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Boged; Bablu; Awri; ?Charlie; Anai; Sam; Gisu; Adau; ?Wasalgi; Barsa; Palau

Photographer

Wilkin, Anthony

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort

Date

27 July 1898

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Named Person: Identification in Haddon papers in "Green box 146" Drawer 1: env.1. Titled "Copper Maori uncovered". Anai is identified as the wife of Gibaz; Sam as the son of Billy. See also P.919.ACH1 which was printed in Reports IV: XXII. fig. 4, captioned "Removing sand from earth oven. Mer (p.132)".

Related Archive: The occasion of the photograph is described in Haddon (1898: 191-2) "went to a ‘Kaikai’. This was a funeral feast for the son of Captain Cook of Darnley, the boy had died about a year before. There was a kolap - a top spinning [P.925.ACH1] as amusement soon after we came the 2 copper maories were opened ..." followed by a description of the contents (pig, yam, bananas, pumpkin) and the feast (see P.917.ACH1).

Related Archive: Myers writes in his journal for the 25th July "Three boat loads of Darnley men arrived today & occupy themselves on the following day in preparing a big Kaikai to celebrate the death of the son of Captain Cook a Darnley man.
27. The big kaikai is held today at Babud: it is smaller than but otherwise very similar to that usually given at Zomared." (1898, p.104) [JD 08/10/2018]

Publication: Image published in 'Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon’s Journals from his Expeditions to the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888–89, 1898–99', Edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp (Sydney University Press), Fig 7.3, and captioned: "Group standing by the remnants of food parcels wrapped in banana leaves after removing the sand from an ame (Copper Maori or earth oven) for a funeral feast for the son of Captain Cook of Darnley. (l-r) Boged, Bablu, Awri; Charlie, Anai, Sam, Gisu, Adau, Wasalgi, Barsa, Palau. Mer, 27 July 1898. MAA N.23179." [JD 13/03/2020]