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Cultural and Natural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait Edited by Ian J

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Cultural and Natural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait Edited by Ian J Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture Volume 8 Part 2 Goemulgaw Lagal: Cultural and Natural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait Edited by Ian J. McNiven and Garrick Hitchcock Minister: Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier and Minister for the Arts CEO: Suzanne Miller, BSc(Hons), PhD, FGS, FMinSoc, FAIMM, FGSA , FRSSA Editor in Chief: J.N.A. Hooper, PhD Editors: Ian J. McNiven, PhD FSA FAHA and Garrick Hitchcock, PhD FLS FRGS Issue Editor: Geraldine Mate, PhD PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD 2015 © Queensland Museum PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone: +61 (0) 7 3840 7555 Fax: +61 (0) 7 3846 1226 Web: qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 1440-4788 VOLUME 8 IS COMPLETE IN 2 PARTS COVER Image on book cover: Pearlshelling station at Panay, Mabuyag, 1890s. Photographer unknown (Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: N23274.ACH2). NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the CEO. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed on the Queensland Museum website qm.qld.gov.au A Queensland Government Project Design and Layout: Tanya Edbrooke, Queensland Museum Printed by Watson, Ferguson & Company A century of Christianity on Mabuyag Anna SHNUKAL Shnukal, A. 2015: A century of Christianity on Mabuyag. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 8 (2):127-202. Brisbane. ISSN 1440-4788. The first Christian mission on Mabuyag was established in 1872 with two London Missionary Society teachers from the Loyalty Islands. Mabuyag became the headquarters of Torres Strait mission activity on several occasions and, from the 1880s, Mabuyag-born teachers and lay workers played a key role in the establishment of mission stations in Torres Strait, New Guinea and Cape York. Christian missions, London Missionary Society, Church of England, Torres Strait Anna Shnukal, Honorary Associate Queensland Museum PO Box 3300 South Brisbane Qld 4101 Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (2) 2015 | 127 A century of Christianity on Mabuyag In 1871, the year following the beginning of dominated the strait’s religious landscape the Torres Strait pearlrush, the first Loyalty until a schism in 1998, although this may Islander Christian missionary teachers be healed in future (see section on the Rev. were placed on Erub (Darnley Island) ‘with Gayai Terrence Hankin in Appendix 4). the sanction of the government which felt Aspects of the history of Christianity that they would serve to protect, pacify and civilize the Islanders’ (Langbridge, in Torres Strait have been surveyed by 1977: 29). The teachers were from the churchmen (Bayton, 1965, 1971; Butcher, Congregationalist and evangelical London 1963; Chalmers & Gill 1885; Done, 1987; Missionary Society (LMS), which viewed Gill, 1876; Horne, 1895; King, 1895; Lovett, the islands as a ‘stepping-stone’ to their 1899; McFarlane 1888; Murray, 1876; Murray true goal of converting the inhabitants of & McFarlane, 1872; Rayner, 1962; White, mainland New Guinea. Although there was 1917, 1918), and analyzed by Goodall some initial resistance, mass conversion to (1954), Prendergast (1968), Beckett (1971, Christianity was achieved in a remarkably 1978), Langbridge (1977), Nokise (1983), short time and by the mid-1880s the whole Williamson (1994), Wetherell (1993, 1998, population had converted at least nominally 2001) and Mullins & Wetherell (2004), among to Christianity. Conversion put an end to others. The interested reader is also referred the cycle of arbitrary and reciprocal killing to publications listed in Shnukal (2003) under for that most valuable of exchange items, the heading ‘Religion’. This paper has more human heads, and provided a means for modest aims, confining itself to Mabuyag. unifying once-feuding populations. Its It returns in major part to primary sources significance as a symbol of both rejection of that are not easily accessed. The first section the ‘dark’ traditional past and acceptance (1872-1914) draws on LMS Papua journals, of the ‘light’ of civilization is shown by the reports and letters of the time, descriptions annual celebration of the date of the first from the local newspaper, research by Teske Christian religious service in Torres Strait, 1 and others in the mid-1980s, Eseli (1998) and July 1871, as the Torres Strait national day, the reminiscences of three Mabuyag men, ‘The Coming of the Light’. Daniel, Harry and Ano, recorded in note In 1915 the LMS handed over its Torres Strait form by MacFarlane (1927b). The second ministry to the Church of England. Almost section (1915-1965) is based on Diocese all the Islanders became Anglicans, whose of Carpentaria publications and archival priests were more accepting of traditional material now held in the Townsville diocesan custom and encouraged local forms of archive. The activities of foreign-born Christianity to incorporate elements of Torres missionaries on Mabuyag are discussed, as Strait ritual, belief and musical expression. are those of the Mabuyag-born LMS mission The first mission priest director, John James teachers and Anglican priests and lay Edmond Done, chose Mabuyag as his base, workers, who acquired status for themselves as had the LMS missionaries, Benjamin and their families through these affiliations. Thomas Butcher and Thomas Oliver Harries, They and their descendants played a key role before him (details on individuals associated in the establishment of early mission stations with the church on Mabuyag are presented and schools in Torres Strait, New Guinea in Appendices 1 to 7). The Anglican Church and Cape York. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (2) 2015 | 129 Anna Shnukal THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY ON is wanted to rouse the dormant MABUYAG 1872-1914 energies of the natives by placing before them motives which make life The LMS initially depended on the worth having (Murray, 1872). government authorities at Somerset The LMS placed its first teachers in Torres for information, accommodation, some Strait in July 1871 but Mabuyag did not transport and general support and on the receive teachers until late 1872 or January trepangers and pearlshellers for transport, 1873, when Waunaia and Gutacene from food, interpreters and guides; the three Mare, New Caledonia, relocated to Mabuyag groups having a common interest in from Mua (Murray, 1872, 1873a; Langbridge, ‘civilizing’ the Islanders. These relationships 1977: 171, 187).1 The establishment by eventually and perhaps naturally soured. Of November 1872 of two pearling stations at particular interest, given the later conflict Panay, the easternmost point of Mabuyag, between them, is the nexus between religious where the teachers could obtain both food and commercial imperatives, made explicit and a supportive network of countrymen by the Rev. A.W. Murray of the LMS as early was probably the main reason. The two as 1872, when he first considered placing a young pioneer teachers and their families teacher on Mabuyag: disembarked at Dabangay, in the Panay The people of Mabuiagi resemble clan district, where ‘many people were their neighbours in their general camped’ (Teske, 1986: 6).2 The elderly appearance, but they struck us as less Daniel, Harry and Ano, reminiscing friendly looking. However if we can about the early history of Christianity on get the gospel brought to bear upon Mabuyag, refer to Dabangay as the ‘main them we may soon have a change village’ on Mabuyag. It was either the for the better. Their houses are mere most important or the most populous area sheds - not to be compared with those or both, although it is unclear whether of Darnley Island, Tauan [Dauan], this was so traditionally or because of the Saibai and the coast of New Guinea. recent attractions of the shelling stations 3 This seems strange as the people of or, again, both (MacFarlane, 1927b). As the this island are accustomed to visit headquarters of the Dugong-Crocodile clan, the main-land – distant only about which had its kod (male ceremonial ground) thirty-six miles, for the purpose of nearby, close to the shore at Dabangay, traffic, and possibly to visit friends Panay was a significant traditional site and and relations. Their articles of barter the chief men of Panay ‘appear to have been are chiefly pearl shell, and iron goods always predominant’ (Haddon, 1935: 56). in exchange for which they obtain One local tradition tells of the role played canoes and provisions. Their own by Mathai,4 a war leader from the Panay island does not produce much that clan, in welcoming Waunaia to Mabuyag. is available for food, chiefly I should He was camped out on Sabil Talab5 when think from want of cultivation. There the missionary ship arrived, met the people is on it a grove of cocoa nuts, the on board and took them to his clan land at first we had seen during our cruise - Dabangay. To commemorate the occasion though they and other tropical fruits of the first Christian prayer offered by the might be raised on these islands missionaries, ‘a white wooden cross was to an unlimited extent. The gospel erected’ (Teske, 1986: 6). Another tradition 130 | Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8(2) 2015 A century of Christianity on Mabuyag stresses the role of Sausa,6 who befriended briefly considered choosing Mabuyag as Waunaia ‘so Mabuiag man no make yarn for the mission’s headquarters, on account of kill him’ (MacFarlane, 1927b). its healthy climate and water supply, safe anchorage and central position with respect The Mabuyag people were mystified at to Mua and Badu, ironically, in the light of first by Waunaia’s behaviour: ‘day by day their later antagonism, the same aspects that he prayed and sang’ (MacFarlane, 1927b).
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