Reclaiming their heritage

Earlier this year I wrote of the origin of the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Island flags.

It was with immense pleasure that I paid tribute to South Australian Harold Thomas by making specific reference to his eye-catching 1971 design: the black represents the Aboriginal people, the red the earth and their spiritual relationship to the land, and the yellow the sun, the giver of life.

Today the black, red and yellow evokes as much pride and passion to Aboriginal people throughout the nation as the red, white and blue of the United State’s flag does for their mob. Cathy Freeman personified that passion when she had sporting giant Nike design her running shoes in the colours when she ran the famous lap to take out the prestigious blue ribbon Sydney Olympic 400 metre race.

Many of our high profile Indigenous athletes today also chose to make statements of pride in their racial origin by wearing the colours on their shorts, shirts, hats and even tattoos on their body. Brisbane Lion’s Chris Johnson is one such athlete who chose the latter statement as a permanent public reminder to the broader community.

Regrettably when I acknowledged the late Bernard Namok in the same article, as the originator of the Torres Strait Island flag, I erred when I made mention of him as a 15-year-old school boy when in fact he was an adult when he was inspired to create the flag’s design in 1992.

Several days after the publication of the article I received a strongly worded letter from Mrs Bakoi Namok who took umbrage at my inaccurate reference to her late husband and added that her children were also distressed by the error.

In the next edition of the Koori Mail I made a public apology and corrected my unintentional but nevertheless poorly researched error. My source for both flags at that time was the AIATSIS Indigenous Encyclopaedia.

Despite the apology my mistake played on my mind for quite some time and I vowed that if I ever had cause to visit the beautiful Torres Straits again I would make a special effort to meet with Mrs Namok to express my regret in person.

Not only did I succeed in fulfilling my long-held goal on my latest trip to Thursday Island, in the first week in December, I was also most fortunate and very grateful to other members of the Namok family, Kernisha and Bernard jnr., who joined their mother and gave their time to share their intimate stories of their father’s celebrated achievement.

In the same way to Aboriginal people showing public pride in their flag so too do Torres Strait Islanders, in particular high profile athletes: Adelaide Crow’s Andrew McCleod and Brisbane Bronco’s Sam Thaiday both have body tattoos of their flag to tell the world the immeasurable pride they have in their origin.

During my informal meeting with the Namok family at the T.R.A.W.Q. Community Council Inc. office, coincidentally next door to their residence where the flag was designed, I was privileged to be handed the original hand written address made by the late Bernard Namok on May 29, 1992.

In his humble address Mr Namok penned, in part, the following words:

What my design stands for is quite simple:

1. the two green are the two mainland of Australia and Papua New Guinea;
2. the blue between these two continents is the blue of the TORRES STRAIT waters;
3. and one symbol I feel that can identify any Islander anywhere is the DHARI;
4. the 5 points of the star are our group; the Western, Eastern, Central, Port Kennedy group and the Mainland group.

… In conclusion I would like to thank Mr (Etti) Pau (Bakoi’s father) the inspiration behind me designing a flag and entering the competition. He has shared many times with me, events of the past and what we, the TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS, real (sic) needs are in the future. One of which I know he must be very proud to be able to witness today and be part of this historic event in the launching of our own, nor matta (sic) where you are, THE TORRES STRAIT FLAG.

After reflecting for some time on those words Mrs Namok informed me of an incident recently when a primary school teacher asked her youngest son Simeon, during a discussion on the origin of the flag to her class, if he was related to Bernard Namok and if so what the flag meant to him. Mrs Namok said her son told her that he gave a long pause to the question before offering a soft but proud response of, “He’s my Dad”.

Speaking the following day with Mrs Romina Fujii, then Chairperson of the 1992 Flag Selection Committee, I was informed that she was so impressed by the late Bernard Namok design that she immediately recommended it be short listed. When her committee, which included Getano Lui, George Mye and the late Ephraim Bani, vetted the short listed flag designs they were in unanimous agreement and promptly ticked it off as the one best able to represent the aspirations of Torres Strait Island people.

Mrs Fuji said her committee’s main purpose for conducting a flag competition was to emulate and capture, for her people, the same passion and hugely successful outcome achieved by the black, red and yellow flag for uniting and empowering Aboriginal Australians.

Another Torres Strait Island leader with whom I spent time with on my trip was Mr Robert (Bongo) Sagigi, Badu Island traditional owner and chairperson of the T.R.A.W.Q. Community Council Inc., who provided me with the following cultural interpretation of the flag through the traditional name for Torres Strait “Zenadth Kes” as follows:

• ZEI - Australia;
• NAIGAI -Papua New Guinea;
• DAGUM - Area in between the two countries;
  THOWA-THDWA - land mass;
• Dhari - symbols represent the Zenadth Kes Islanders;
• Star - represents the 5 regions: Top Western (Gudamaluilgal), Near Western (Malvilgal), Eastern (Meriam), Central (Kulkalgal) and Inner Islands (Kaiwalagai).

Mr Sagigi said that his people felt the time was now right for a name change from Torres Strait, named after Luis Vaes De Torres, a Spanish Explorer who discovered Torres Strait in 1606 on his way from Espiritus Santos in the New Hebrides, to Zenadth Kes.

“If Ayers Rock can be changed to Uluru after a request by their traditional owners why can’t we also have our TSI traditional owners request accepted formally by the government?”, Mr Sagigi enquired.

Most of Mr Sagigi’s historical presentation of the Torres Strait was made in language and ably interpreted to me by his adviser, Mr Siri Stephen.

Mr Sagigi provided me with a copy of a resolution tabled at the Kuiku Mabaigal Forum, Badu Island (of all TSI traditional owners) held on August 12-13, 2004 that reads:

The Kuiku Mabaigal Forum resolves by consensus to form the Federation of Island Councils “Zenadth Kes” to absorb responsibility of the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and the Department of Local Government and Planning, in terms of State funding and policy and the Torres Strait Regional Authority in terms of Commonwealth funding and policy responsibilities.

Mr Sagigi said that as a result of the Badu Island resolution he led a delegation to Brisbane on October 26, 2004 to meet with senior state ministers and policy advisors. The delegation, which included Pedro Stephen, Mayor, Torres Shire Council; Jack Ahmat, Chairman, Badu Island Council; Rocky Stephen, Chairman, Stephen Island Council; Gabriel Bani, Member of the Greater Autonomy Steering Committee, put forward a proposal of a name change to Premier Peter Beattie’s senior representatives.

At a community cabinet meeting on Thursday Island with Premier Beattie on December 4, 2005 Mr Sagigi asked for an update on the name change request. The Premier allegedly commented that he would “look into it”.

A self-assured Mr Sagigi concluded our conversation by saying that if a response was not forthcoming soon from the Premier he would consider his options under the Federal Racial Discrimination Act through the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) and the Anti Discrimination Commission Queensland (ADCQ) to bring about the culturally appropriate and long overdue change.

As Mr Sagigi so eloquently put it, “… they came with a Bible and told us to close our eyes and when we opened our eyes the white man had taken away our land”.

I left the beautiful shores of the Torres Strait convinced that the next time I return that name, imposed on them by an accidental Spanish discovery in 1606, may have changed or at least be in its final days of a long reign.