Australian
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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows preparations for a ceremony to unveil or open a tombstone in a Torres Strait Islander community. Members of the family decorate the gravesite, and the deceased’s daughters cover the tombstone with colourful fabrics. Narrator Helen Anu says that people will come from the surrounding islands to celebrate the life of the deceased. Men and women are also shown preparing for the feast that will follow the unveiling, with the men tending the earth oven. The narrator speaks Yumiplatok, and the clip includes singing and is subtitled.

Educational value points

• In Torres Strait Islander culture the tombstone-unveiling ceremony is a huge event, marking the end of the mourning period. The event, which honours the life of the deceased and acknowledges that they have reached their final resting place, is celebrated and shared with the whole community. It is up to the family to decide when they are ready to publicly unveil the tombstone, but the ceremony usually takes place about 12 months after the body is interred.

• The tombstone-unveiling ceremony is coordinated by a Mariget, an Elder who is an in-law of the deceased person’s family. The Mariget can be either a man or a woman. In addition to the Mariget, the extended family of the deceased are involved in making preparations for and carrying out the ceremony. Torres Strait Islanders often travel from surrounding islands and the Australian mainland to take part.

• The involvement of the community in the tombstone-unveiling ceremony is indicative of the strong kinship ties among Torres Strait Islanders. Extended families are central to the Islanders’ sense of identity. In addition to being a source of emotional and spiritual support, the family provide a framework that ensures resources are shared and that sets out obligations to kin.

• The tombstone-unveiling ceremony is a dynamic cultural activity, one that has survived and been incorporated into Christian practices. The arrival of missionaries in the Torres Strait Islands in 1871 and the subsequent conversion of the Islanders to Christianity saw an erosion of the traditional way of life. However, the need to ceremonially signal the end of a period of mourning remains an important way for Torres Strait Islanders to affirm their identity and cultural heritage.

• Preparation for the feast that follows the tombstone-unveiling ceremony is gender specific, with men responsible for catching seafood such as fish, dugong and turtle, and women responsible for gathering and preparing vegetables such as pumpkin, yam and sweet potato. The food is then cooked in an earth oven, known as a kup-murri, constructed by the men.

• The earth oven or kup-murri shown in this clip consists of a shallow pit in the ground filled with rocks, as well as wood and leaves to make a fire to heat the rocks. Once the rocks are hot, some are set aside and the food, which is placed in banana- or coconut-leaf baskets, is put in the centre of the pit. The rocks are then placed on top of the food so it cooks evenly. More leaves and sand are placed on top of the rocks to seal in the heat. The food usually cooks for several hours.

• While Islanders from the eastern Torres Strait Islands speak Meriam Mer and western Islanders speak Kala Lagau Ya, since contact with Europeans a language known as Yumiplatok, a Creole or pidgin English, has also evolved. Spoken by the narrator, it is a fusion of English and the two traditional languages, and is used by Islanders from the various language groups to communicate with each other and non-Islanders. English is a second or third language for most Islanders.

A fire is burning as the title 'Ceremony Day’ comes up, then a man raking the hot ashes and people placing food on a grille on the ashes.

Narrator (Speaks Indigenous language)
English subtitles: Within the islands of the Torres Strait, we have many family ties, so there will be many people who will attend. This Opening is on one of the outer islands, which means not only will there be people from that island, but also from neighbouring islands as well. Everyone will come together to celebrate the life of the deceased.

People are decorating and preparing areas that will be used during the ceremony.

Narrator English subtitles: When it is time to cover the headstone, it is always the daughters who do this work. The family of the deceased give them materials and when the opening happens, it is the Mariget who removes the materials. Cultural law says after the unveiling everybody can see the 'New House’ (grave) together. This is what marks the end of the grieving period.