Masked Histories - by Leah Lui-Chivizhe (Paperback)

About the Book

"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.

Book Synopsis

Masked Histories celebrates the remarkable Torres Strait Islander turtle shell masks that were taken by traded to Europeans throughout the nineteenth century. Displayed as curiosities or art in museums and galleries around the world, the Islander knowledges they held were silenced. Delving into old stories from both Islanders and the foreigners who had travelled to the region, Lui-Chivizhe reanimates the masks with their Islander meaning and purpose. Masked Histories uncovers the profound importance of the turtle shell masks to Islanders and reveals much about the beliefs and way of life of the people who created them.

Review Quotes

"This is an interesting book that, because of its novelty and its intrinsic interest, most readers will find very satisfactory indeed. A fresh, vigorous book." --QRC

"Masked Histories is a wonderful journey into the heart of the Torres Strait islands. Leah Lui-Chivizhe places turtle-shell masks at the centre of her cultural history as she peels away layers of a colonial past and present to reveal a humanity that pulsates with both life and sadness. A ground-breaking history."--JULIA HORNE, HISTORIAN, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

About the Author

Historian and curator Leah Lui-Chivizhe is a Torres Strait Islander with enduring family connections to the eastern and western Torres Strait. Her research focuses on how nineteenth-century collections from the region can be useful for reconnecting Islanders with our pre-colonial histories of human and other-than-human relations. Leah teaches in indigenous histories at University of Technology, Sydney.