I’m Ned David.
My father’s from, the area of Magan
which includes a number of islands:
Tudu, Zagai, Iama, Gebarr, Mucar, Sassie.
That sea and islands around that area is called Magan.
My mum is from Murray. She’s from the Komet tribe.
And I’m currently the chair of Magani Lagaugal,
which is the registered native title body corporate
that holds the rights and interests of all the traditional owners
for the Magan areas.
As far as we know, the family, at that particular point in time,
when Haddon first arrived
and, of course, his following visit with the Cambridge expedition,
he befriended a number of people in the Torres Strait
and, of course, one of ’em was the great-great-grandfather
for a number of us today,
from Yam, Tudu, the Magan area.
And the artefacts or, you know, the headdress
and a number of the other things
that that old fella had given to Haddon,
to us today, my generation, certainly my parents’ generation,
I think you can’t place a value on how important it is for us.
That’s what these, you know, the headdress and the charm, I think,
means to me...
means to me in terms of what I tell my children and my grandchildren,
this is evidence of, you know, our people,
how they lived their life, how they celebrated life.
You know, the charm itself,
it’s not just something for Tudu or for people of Magan,
you find that throughout a number of the islands in the Torres Strait,
and I suspect you probably find something very similar
in a lot of Indigenous cultures.
And it’s evidence of how they connect respect
and interact with their own environment - land and sea.
And it goes, it think, a long way to explain the spiritual connection
that people have with their environment.
In this instance, it’s probably more personal
and the connection is much stronger
because this is an individual that comes through our line.
There isn’t, like, no-one here. There are descendants of this man.
There are descendants of his father
who was a very, very important and significant figure
in the Torres Strait.
Well, not just in the Torres Strait but in that region.
You know, whilst we live in a very progressed, civilised,
well, contemporary society now,
um, these things that you see,
a lot of these things are still retained.
Um, you know, the belief in what these things mean to people
are still well and truly alive.
And, you know, this might be sort of... an evidence
or a picture into past Torres Strait setting,
um, but that don’t mean that it don’t exist in some shape or form today,
it is well and truly alive.
I, um... I guess, you know, for a lot of non-Indigenous Australians
or non-Indigenous people full stop,
many would probably not know about the Torres Strait,
or many would probably not know about Tudu or Kebisu.
And, you know, my message would be this is an important figure
that should be known, should be learnt,
um, and, you know, he’s just as important
for Australian history,
um, as any of the other great figures that you read about
in the annals of Australian history.