Mabuiag / Jervis Island, Torres Strait, 1898

The British Library’s Alfred Cort Haddon 1898 Expedition (Torres Strait and British New Guinea) Cylinder Collection includes 140 wax cylinders recorded on the Torres Strait Islands and in British New Guinea as part of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits. This cylinder collection constitutes the earliest collection of sound recordings in the Library’s Sound Archive.

A subset of 24 recordings have been identified as those recorded by Ray on Mabuiag, Saibai and Yam. Analysis, notations and words for these songs can be found in Myers (1912a:262-265, 269).

Myers noted that Ray recorded music on Mabuiag, Yam and Saibai although there are also recordings of speech in the cylinder collection (1912:261). Ray’s work on Mabuiag was based on material from Tom (Noboa), Ned (Waria) and Peter (Papi) (Ray 1907:7). Ray’s work on language was published in Volume III of the Reports. For example, this includes a transcription and translation of Story of Amipuru as told by Waria (C80/1041) (1907:220).

There is a sub-set of recordings that feature crying and grieving (C80/1068, 1073 and 1075 from Mabuiag).

Mabuiag recordings would have been made between 17 September 1898 and 22 October 1898. As Myers had left for Borneo in August, it is highly likely that Ray did the recording on Mabuiag and so the date range can be further specified as between 3 October and 22 October 1898.

For locations suggested as Mabuiag (but not confirmed), the same date span has been provided and a recording note {509} has been used to qualify the recording date. The following recordings have been confirmed as Mabuiag recordings due to the information in the announcements and on the cylinder notes:

• C80/1068 – 1070
• C80/1072 – 1075
• C80/1041 – Ray mentioned his work with Waria in journal entries dated 17, 19 and 20 October (1898-1899:89-90). He noted that Waria wrote the story of Amipuru on 20 October 1898.
• C80/1059 – Ray described recording Mamus Nomoa in his journal on 16 October 1898 (1898-1899:89).
• C80/1067 and C80/1071 have been confirmed as Mabuiag recordings due to their subject, Kwoiam. On 21 September 1898 and 27 September, Seligmann, Wilkin and Haddon visited and photographed sites connected to Kwoiam, “the legendary hero of the island” (Haddon 1898-1899:230). On 8 October 1898, a pibi kap was performed, also known as Kwoiam’s Dance and “was a war dance that was performed after a successful fight” (Haddon 1898-1899:239-240).
• C80/1067, C80/1072, C80/1081 – Ray mentioned in his journal that he recorded two songs by Gizu on 7 October (1898-1899:89). These may include C80/1067, 1072 or 1081.
• C80/1081 – Although one of the performers is Gizu of Mabuiag, Maino is also noted as a performer in the announcement. It is not clear from contemporary publications whether Maino visited Mabuiag with the expedition party.

The expedition members stayed in an old school-house or church, which they converted into an “anthropological laboratory” (Haddon 1898-1899:233; Ray 1898-1899:88). In 1877, the London Missionary Society centred the church on the “longest beach on the island” and a new village developed at Bau [Baawa] (Eseli 1998:27). In 1897, a larger church was built (Eseli 1998:26). Presumably this is why an older church building was available for the expedition’s use. A map of Mabuiag from the time of the expedition can be found in Volume V of the Cambridge Reports (1904:7). The location of Bau corresponds to the modern centre of Mabuiag.

Research by Rebekah Hayes, British Library, in partnership with Grace Koch, AIATSIS.