Dhari (Headdress)
2014
- Medium
- saltwater Hibiscus string, Lawyer cane, Torres Strait pigeon feathers, golden lip pearly (Dibi Dibi), Wada seed, mother-of-pearl
- Measurements
- 76.0 × 43.0 × 7.0 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- Cairns, Queensland
- Accession Number
- 2015.545
- Department
- First Nations Australia
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by the Nordia Foundation, 2016
© Courtesy of the artist - Gallery location
- Gallery 7
Level 2, NGV Australia - About this work
-
Dhoeri or dhari (headdresses) are worn by dancers for ceremonial occasions across the Torres Strait Islands. This series employs traditional techniques carried across generations, using typical materials of white seabird feathers and mother-of-pearl. Though use of dhari has been part of Torres Strait culture for millenia, their use in performance and ritual was absent throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The introduction of Christianity had a profound impact on Islander culture. In 1871, with the arrival of the London Missionary Society at Erub, the participation of cultural ceremony became prohibited. Today, the making of dhari has re-emerged as a symbol of survival and a celebration of Torres Strait Islander people. So iconic to their culture, it is one of the motifs on their official flag.