Emeret Nar - ghost net outrigger canoe
Date2017
Object numberV00055188
NameSculpture
Mediumpolypropylene, steel frame
DimensionsOverall: 4000 × 5400 × 5500 mm
Copyright© Erub Erwer Meta Arts Centre
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with funds from the Sid Faithfull and Christine Sadler program supporting Contemporary Indigenous Maritime Heritage in Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands through the ANMM Foundation
Collections
DescriptionEmeret Nar takes the form of a traditional Erub Island double outrigger canoe. It is made from fishing nets abandoned or discarded from large fishing vessels in the seas that drift into the Torres Strait.
These coloured polypropylene nets are referred to as ghost nets because they float in masses of water for years at a time and have a devastating impact on ocean life and the environment, entangling sea creatures.
The Erub Erwer Meta Arts Centre on Erub Island in eastern Torres Strait washes and prepares the nets, splitting and separating the strands to create new materials and new colours for threading, weaving and tying into new forms - most often of things that have a vital life in the community such as sea creatures, sea birds, corals, seaweeds and in this case a canoe. These art works carry both an environmental message and a message about cultural sustainability.SignificanceEmeret Nar, the ghost net double outrigger canoe, is similar to the canoes used in the eastern Torres Strait at the time of European contact that were generally made from logs traded from Papua New Guinea. It's signiificance lies in its form, its expression of cultural identity and sustainability, the practice of canoe building and its environmental messaging.
‘Ghost nets’ is a term for fragments, lengths or sections of fishing nets or rigging lines abandoned by or dumped from fishing vessels in the seas around Torres Strait and Cape York. The nets can be found floating or washed up on local beaches. They are a destructive hazard to sea life.
The Erub Island community has been using nets to make art for a decade. In 2008 they entered a competition to raise awareness about the damaging effects of abandoned nets on sea life around Australia’s northern coastlines. Ghost net weaving has become an established cultural art form in Torres Strait.
Today the nets and ropes are collected by members of the Indigenous land and sea management program – the sea rangers for repurposing as a medium for the Erub community. Many of the rangers are from the Australian Quarantine and Customs Service. The community makes art with the nets that explores the threat to their maritime world and speaks of community and global sustainability - environmental, cultural and economic.
The Erub Island community weaves the ghost nets into the forms of marine creatures, both totems and sea life at risk - as turtles, fish, dugongs, crocodiles, sharks and whales - to draw attention to their importance to the community and more broadly to the life and health of the oceans. Artists adapt their traditional weaving techniques to work with this new salvaged medium into very powerful works that have tremendous aesthetic, cultural and historical significance.
These works of art are a statement by the community about the effects of ocean pollution, the interdependence of the world's communities on the ocean and an assertion of the identity of sea peoples and their responsibilities towards the ocean as custodians - in particular to the 400 people of Erub Island. Many of the works tell songlines, melding traditional storytelling techniques, where elders work with young members of the community to weaving and constructing these ‘ghost net’ art works to maintain their cultural practices.
Emeret Nar, the canoe, is an important craft and motif in island life. While canoes today have been replaced by the outboard dinghy the Emeret Nar building project is a holistic community effort that retains and passes on knowledge about the environment and cultural practices in Erub Island life.
Artists statement 'The Canoe glides silently through the water navigated by the stars and the seasonal winds and tides. With its translucent ghost net it invites a discussion around culture in times of change; all life is fragile and changing, preserving life and customs is an important part of Erub Island beliefs'. The Stars of Tagai in the Milky Way that decorate its hull are a sky songline critical to Torres Strait Islander culture dictating seasons for mating, hunting and gardening. The constellation remains an important guide to daily life especially for navigation and fishing.
