IDNO

LS.109416.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Badu [sic 'Moa'].
Grave-yard. Post + human face." [manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.1157.ACH1: "Old-time graveyard at Moa." [typed text, circa 1935]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Oceania Melanesia; Australia; Torres Strait; Moa

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort

Date

1898

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Archive: Referenced in notebook titled ‘List of Torres-Straits Photographs. 1888 - 1889. A.C. Haddon’, "98. Graves - (better than 93). Moa." [JD 20/4/2011]

Related Archive: Haddon writes in his 1888 Journal,"On Monday Sept. 17 we started for Mabiag @ 12.30 and shortly before sunset we arrived off It (pronounced eet) or Moa (Banks Is.). We did not land but the Mamoose or Chief & four policemen boarded us & after dinner I had a long talk with them got information as to words & customs. After breakfast we landed and I took a couple of photographs of some graves one was an old one which I also sketched. In olden times they used to lay the dead body out on a platform supported by these posts until dry & then the head was cut off & kept in a basket along with the fibula and shoulder blade. (p.41) [JD 28/5/2011]

Context: The posts formed the support for the pier on which the body was placed and mummified until disintegration occurred. This form of ‘burial’ was replaced by internment by the LMS missionaries from 1871. [Jude Philp 2/3/1999]

Place: Although the lanternslide is annotated as being 'Badu', the duplicate images and related documents indicate that this photograph was made on Moa Island. The Place filed has been amended according. [JD 13/08/2024]