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Memories Beneath the Waves: A Ghost Network Story
My Ghost Network artwork tells the story of a historically significant area within the sea country of Erub (Darnley Island) in the Eastern Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. This area is widely known throughout Australia as the “Darnley Deeps,” and it is located near one of the largest reefs southwest of Erub, called “Kaleko (Calico) Reef” in contemporary regional terms. Originally known as “Kareko Norr,” meaning “a protective good anchorage reef,” this was where the pearling lugger boats would anchor for shelter during rough weather when working within the Darnley Deeps area. The “Mai Kes” meaning “The Gold Lip Pearl passage” is a garden of reefs where our divers once walked collecting pearl shells, and it is regarded as a beautiful haven by many divers, like another world beneath the waves. The pearl divers of the mid-last century era dove there for “Mai,” which is what the Erubam People called the “Gold Lip” mother-of-pearl shells. This was also a lucrative industry in the Torres Strait region at that time. My father, the late Opeta Fauid, his younger brother Lawrence Fauid, and other uncles from Poruma also worked as pearl divers and survived the Darnley Deeps. My father spoke of Kaleko Reef often, which made me wonder about this magical place. When I look back in retrospect, I’m so grateful my father survived for me to be here today. As a young girl, I always wanted to see Kaleko Reef and the Darnley Deeps from the stories my dad told our family. When I married my husband Kapua from Erub 38 years ago, he took me and our five children out there many times to see the beautiful Kaleko Reef and Darnley Deeps the historical, sacred sites of his Erubam people. I’ve created this artwork as a memory of my life, to remember the wonderful reef gardens of Kaleko Reef, Mai Kes, and Darnley Deeps where my late father, uncles, and many other divers of different nationalities walked beneath the waves, collecting Gold Lip pearl shells from the beautiful reef gardens. My husband’s late grandfather, Kapua Gutchen Snr, was also a pearl diver who dove the Darnley Deeps. In respect and remembrance, my husband later composed an island dance song titled “Darnley Deeps” in honor of his homeland Erub.
