Masked Histories

"The stories Islanders once told, sang and danced continue to tell us about our past and are vital elements of my telling of this history. Across the Torres Strait, myths, stories, ceremony, places and objects were principla keepers of Islander history. By the early twentieth century, the large turtle shell masks that connected Islanders to their seas, to the living and the deceased, that held the stories of their making and their uses in ceremony were all but gone ... Using Islanders' myths and stories and the turtle shell masks themselves, I reanimate the masks with their Islander histories of meaning and purpose." -- Back cover.