Croc! Kinship and connection accessibility tourCroc! Kinship and connection accessibility tour 

Croc! Lost Giants to Living Legends, Kinship and connection audio description and transcript includes:

Part 1 includes:

• Kinship and connection
• Crocodile Spirit Man

Part 2 includes:

• Shield with crocodile teeth design
• Crocodile dance video
• Crocodile headdress

Part 3 includes:

• Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea masks 

You are moving into a new section. A panel on the wall summarises this section with the following text:

KINSHIP AND CONNECTION

The crocodile means many things to different Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Queensland.

Crocodiles may be gods, totems, food, friends or foes, and they feature in many stories, myths and legends.

Although it is impossible to represent the full scale and meaning of the crocodile for First Nations people, these objects show the human–crocodile relationship as part of a tangled web of kinship and connection.

 

(CROCODILE SPIRIT MAN)

DESCRIPTION OF DISPLAY:

An artwork called Crocodile Spirit Man hangs on an overhead display. The artwork is designed to be worn over a person’s head and shoulders. It is a sculptural piece, about 1.5 metres long and 50 cm wide, made from a wire frame draped with vibrant green fishing net with yellow trim. It depicts a crocodile’s head - its mouth open and filled with 15-cm-long white teeth made from wood and foam scraps. Its eyes are red and appear to be made from the spherical floats used on the topline of a fishing net.

An object label on the wall gives context to this display. It reads:

CROCODILE SPIRIT MAN

Wearable art created by Mylene Holroyd, Michael Norman and Jones Holroyd, 2018-23, Pormpuraaw Art and Culture Centre, Cape York.

Made from ghost nets – illegally discarded commercial fishing nets – that are cleared from beaches and waters by Traditional Owners.

Ghost net sculptures recycle these materials, turning environmental hazards into powerful artworks. 

This piece represents the crocodile totem. Totems are a vital part of Thaayorre, Kugu and Wik culture, and inspire songlines and stories.

DESCRIPTION OF DISPLAY:

Mounted on the wall, and encased in a glass box, is a wooden shield about 1 metre tall and 40 cm wide. The shield is decorated with small red-ochre dots over a yellow background, and features large, white, croc tooth shapes outlined in black, arranged in three rows along the centre of the shield. Red-ochre accents mark the top, bottom and edges of the shield. At the centre, an egg-shaped dome, painted ochre-red, protrudes from the shield.

A text panel gives context for this display. It reads:

SHIELD WITH CROCODILE TEETH DESIGN

Created by Michael Boiyool Anning, 2011, Dulgu-barra, Yidinji.

Yidinji people from far North Queensland cut shields from the buttress roots of native fig trees and give them to young men for their initiation ceremonies.

Two men close to the initiate paint abstract designs on his shield, using rich ochre colours. The designs represent important animal and plant totems, identify which group the owner belongs to, and emphasise his spiritual relationship to Country.

 

(CROCODILE DANCE VIDEO)

DESCRIPTION OF DISPLAY:

This artwork is called Koedalaw Girer - or Crocodile Dance - by Badu Island artist Alick Tipoti. An excerpt of his artwork was featured in the foyer to this exhibition.

This artwork is a dance captured in a video, projected onto the wall, 4 metres wide and 2 metres high.

In the video Alick and his two young-adult sons perform three traditional crocodile dances at totemic beach sites in the Torres Straits. The beaches featured in the video have pristine white sand fringed by clear tropical-blue water.

Alick’s sons dance on the shoreline while wearing 2-metre-long crocodile headdresses that are bright green in colour. The headdress depicts an entire crocodile - head, body and legs. The two dancers wear traditional ceremonial grass skirts and fringing around their waist, neck, upper arms and calves. Their dance is in the rhythm with the music and based on the crocodile’s movements and behaviour – steady and deliberate. Alick, and two female musicians, drum and sing sitting on stools, or on the sand nearby, watching the dancers.

An object label mounted near the video projection reads:

Alick Tipoti and his sons created this headdress and dance to celebrate and respect their crocodile totem. They were influenced by 19th century turtle shell masks, historical dance practices and objects.

The work is an important mode of cultural revival, keeping traditional Torres Strait Islander culture dynamic and alive, and educating younger generations of Badu Island people.

 

(CROCODILE HEADDRESS)

DESCRIPTION OF DISPLAY:

Displayed in front of the video of the Crocodile Dance is a headdress similar to those in the video. This crocodile headdress is a highly-polished mottled brown and burnt orange colour. It is 2 metres long and about 40 cm wide at the middle, tapering at the snout and tail.

Around the edges of this headdress are short tufts of traditional grass skirting, or zazi. The belly of the crocodile is hollow - designed to sit atop the dancer’s head, with the croc’s neck, head and snout extending forward in front of the dancer’s face. The long tail and back legs extend from the back of the dancer’s head. The crocodile’s front legs extend down to the dancer’s chest and are joined by a bar that goes across the dancer’s chest - allowing the dancer to balance the headdress. The attached ropes manipulate the croc’s teeth-filled jaws, snapping them closed or dropping them open.

Mounted on the wall nearby is an earphone next to a small video display. Pick up the earphone to listen to Alick talk about this artwork, and the importance of his totem Koedal - the Crocodile - to his artistic practice.

 

(TSI & PNG MASKS)

A text panel mounted on the wall give context to the two masks displayed nearby. The sign reads:

Highly decorative masks made of turtle shell, feathers and other natural materials were used in rituals and ceremonies in the Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea. The art of mask-making has been practiced for centuries, and similar masks and headdresses continue to be created and used today. If you or your community have information about these objects, please contact us via the QR code below.

The QR code has been included for people to submit information because the collection and display of First Nations cultural material have evolved since these masks were collected over 130 years ago. Museums recognise the importance of Indigenous custodianship and consulting with community to improve interpretation of objects and collections.

DESCRIPTION OF DISPLAY:

Two extremely intricate and ornate wooden masks are displayed side-by-side on tall plinths inside a tall glass cabinet. A ‘no-photos’ logo of a crossed-out camera is stencilled on all sides of the cabinet. The predominant structure of both masks is a shoebox-sized hollow wooden carving of a crocodile’s snout and a tall ‘forehead-like’ back section of the mask. Along the snout’s edge jagged teeth made from a paper-like material are attached and painted white. Long strands of plant fibre and feathers hang down from the bottom jaw. Large, long plumes of grey-brown, black, and white feathers border the tall forehead, like a mane. Smaller tufts of feathers and dangling clusters of seedpods embellish different parts of the masks. The wooden surfaces of each mask are painted with natural pigment to depict the crocodile’s eye, and various decorative patterns in white, yellow, black and ochre-red.

 

An object label under the first mask reads:

Turtle shell, feathers, seed pods and plant fibres. Purchased at auction around 1895 from the property of Captain C.P. Downes, likely collected during a maritime expedition. It sold for six shillings (the equivalent of about $56 today), revealing how cultural objects were valued in the past compared to today.

 

An object label under the second mask reads:

Wood, galvanised iron, cassowary feather, plant fibres and seed pods.

Donated to Queensland Museum, May 1884 by Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer. Palmer’s role as the Colonial Secretary meant that he interacted with public servants in the Thursday Island region.