September. October 109Even a s late a s the 1980 s, Isla nder cu lt ure wa s f row ned
on by the authorities, recalls Torres Shire Mayor Vonda
Malone. “In those early days, we’d only dance at the
school on Sundays for tourists, or away down south, like
when I performed once at a Melbourne Cup,” she says.
“But it was shunned at home back then. We weren’t
allowed to speak Creole at school. We had segregation:
‘half-castes’ were segregated from ‘full-bloods’. So back
then it was about our culture surviving, while now it’s
about it thriving.”
Certain places retained culture more easily, Vonda
adds. “Because my mum’s generation was in that seg-
regation, they weren’t able to pass culture down to us,
particularly here on TI. We only got to fully embrace
our culture when we went back to the outer islands,
where I spent the early part of my childhood,” she
explains. “That was the time we were able to grasp the
island ways.”
Those ways were wonderful. “I remember at events
on the islands they would dance from nine in the morn-
ing right through the night. Us kids would sit on woven
mats and watch with a hurricane lamp,” Vonda says.
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Vonda’s cousin Fred Gela, another charismatic young
leader, is mayor of the Torres Strait Island Regional
Council, which oversees the remote outer island com-
munities. He was in Year Seven in 1987 when he per-
formed at that first festival. “The festival ensures our
culture not only survives but continues to be handed
down from one generation to another,” Fred says. “Lan-
g uage, a s pa r t of cu lt ure, su f fered a s a resu lt of the DNA
[Department of Native Affairs] and the Protection Act.
If you spoke your language at that time, it would have
a n i mpact on your food rat ions. So we g rew up not being
able to speak f luently [in] our mother’s tongue, which is
Meriam Mir. So for me, when the first festival occurred,
it was a big shift in mindset.”
The region’s languages have been recognised as
severely or cr it ica l ly end a ngered by U N ESCO, a nd so
a Regional Language Centre was off icially opened as
part of the 2018 festival. “Having this centre now, it
gives us the ability to learn our mother tongue that
was lost as a result of colonialism, as a result of past
policies of segregation and assimilation,” Fred says.Dressed in an elaborate traditional costume, Jehemess Waia focuses
intently during a performance with the Mungu Koekaper Dance Team
from Saibai Island during the 2018 festival.A performer from the Wugalgau Kalin Thitui Dance Team from
St Pauls community on Moa Island struts her stuff at the
Winds of Zenadth Cultural festival on Thursday Island.