IDNO

LS.109326.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Torres Sts, (gen:).
[female symbol] of Iasa, Kiwai. oi nurumara coconut palm totem on arm. lines on left breast made when sick (& others on back).
Kaubi of Sui. N.G. ngata, edible shell-fish lives in holes in rocks, on arm.
Bonel of Saibai. awaiiautalab pelicans flying or floating in sinuous line cut by father on right thigh as sign that daughter is marriageable.
Abaka of Boigu. pata mina scutes of crocodile." [manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.1073.ACH1: Totem scarification on Saibai, etc., women.

Drawing of two women from New Guinea, and two women from Saibai to illustrate their totem scarification. On top left is the torso of the show her breast-bone and upper arm marks; on the top right is a half-length portrait of a women with breast and upper arm markings. On the bottom left is the body and legs of Bonel with awaiau ita labai (mark representing pelicans flying or floating on the water) that were cut by her father on the right leg as a puberty mark and a sign that she was ready to be married. On the bottom right is a drawing of Abaka, showing markings on her abdomen. [JD 18/5/2011, description from record P.1073.ACH1, JD 01/09/2017]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Oceania Melanesia; Australia; Torres Strait; Saibai

Cultural Affliation

Saibai Islander

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort

Date

?1890

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: A drawing of Bonel is published in Reports V: Plate X, Figs.1-4 and captioned:
"Scarification ofWomen." [JD 11/4/2011]

Publication: A drawing of Bonel after Robert Bruce is in Reports IV: Plate III, 2 to illustrate ear elongation and scarification (IV: 16). A number of photographs were made of women with scarification markings, usually relating to their totems or augad. Associated references can be found in V: 158, although this particular photograph is not referenced. [Jude Philp, 6/2/1998]

Bibliographical Reference: Haddon writes in Report IV, pp.16-17:
Scarifications of the Body...
The ^-shaped breast scarifications of the women (susu minar, Breast mark (W.), nano user, breast scarification or nano dub koima, breast scar koima (E.)), were probably frequent everywhere, as they still are on the neighbouring coast of New Guinea and the adjoining islands. I was informed in the western islands that these scarifications were made when the subjects were girls for the purpose of holding up the breasts so that they should not become pendulous. Mr R. Bruce informs me that in Saibai, Daudai and the Fly river district all the women who are scarified in this way have short breasts and not long pendulous breasts like other women. They told him that they were scarified when they were young so as to look ‘flash’ (smart) and also in order that when they had suckled children their breasts would not hang down.
A good example of a susu minar is seen in pl. III. fig. 2, which is drawn from a tracing made by Mr. R. Bruce of the scarification, susu guda-mulam, on Bonel of Saibai. Mr Bruce adds that the flesh of this scarification is raised up in a round, smooth wale as in the case of the Australian blacks." [JD 11/4/2011]

Bibliographical Reference: Haddon writes in Report V, p.158:
"Bonel of Saibai has scars on her leg (pl. X. Fig.3) which represent pelicans flying or floating on the water. The mark was called awaiau ita labai, and we were told it was cut by her father on the right leg of a girl as a puberty mark and a sign that she was ready to be married. Bonel belongs to the Sam clan and is married to Zangaur (Kodal)." [JD 11/4/2011]