Koskergiz Kaubu Kerkerr ge [TSI Womenfolks of the War Era]

In 2018 the Australian War Memorial commissioned artist and Elder Kapua Gutchen Senior (Meriam Mir) of Erub Erwer Meta (Erub Arts) on Erub (Darnley Island) in the Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait). He was asked to create a suite of drawings depicting Second World War stories unique to Erub and the eastern region of the Torres Strait, including those relating to his own service with C Company, 51st Battalion, Far North Queensland Regiment.

Born on Waiben (Thursday Island) in 1957, Gutchen grew up on Erub. A Meriam Mir man, he enlisted with the Australian Army in 1987, and later taught himself to draw. For more than 20 years he sketched people, campsites, community infrastructure, shipping, and boat movements, before he began to draw from his imagination and memory.

Although too young to have witnessed the war firsthand, Gutchen’s drawings reflect knowledge of the war gathered from his own military service and that of other Erubam families, as well as from accounts passed down through oral history, dance, and song. They are inspired by contemporary commemorative ceremonies performed in the region, and by Gutchen’s contributions and performances made with the Australian Army’s Sarpeye dance troupe.

As able-bodied men left the islands for Waiben (Thursday Island) to form the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, woman took over parental duties, as well as caring for the elderly and frail. This drawing depicts some Erubam women laying low, washing their family clothes in a creek bed, while Japanese war planes fly by on their way to bomb Ngurupai (Horn Island).