Muthuk

Muthuk was an expert hunter and fisherman, never missing a kill or bite. He never shared his catch with anyone except his family. He never shared his catch with the people in the village, nor the sorcerer priests of the Island. This was a very serious offence as “Island Custom” dictates that you share your catch, especially with the elders of the village, including the priests. Muthuk was warned that he should start sharing his catch. He ignored the warnings, several of them. The sorcerer priests decided his insolence should be punished. They cast their spell.

The next day, Muthuk went fishing, and for the first time in his life, he never caught anything all day. In fact he never even got a bite from a fish until just on sunset. As he hooked the fish, and dragged it from the water, it came free from the hook and fell back into the water. In his frustration Muthuk leapt into the water to catch this small and elusive snapper with his spear. In doing so he jumped right into the mouth of an oversized shark that the sorceress had put there, with the spell as part of his punishment.

Muthuk became cold, and guessed he was in deep water, and for several days Muthuk stayed inside the shark. Then he warmed up & guessed he was on the reef in shallow water. So taking his mud mussel knife from his hip, he cut his way out of the belly of the shark. When he immerged from the belly of the shark he found himself at Boigu Island, where his sister Gainau lived with her husband. Now in pre-contact times all uninvited visitors were considered potentially hostile, and upon being discovered, a first response was to kill the visitor first and figure out why they were there later.

Knowing that the women of the island collect water from a well, Muthuk went to the well to see his sister. When he drank from the well he saw his reflection in the water and horrified to see that his journey in the shark had sent him totally bald head to toe. So he hid near by the well having clinched his first step in returning home to Badu and he waited for his sister to come and collect water from the well.

At the end of the day the women arrived and then when he attracted Gainau’s attention she was equally surprised not only by her brother’s unannounced arrival but also by his baldness and nakedness. He explained what happened then she went to tell her husband. Her  husband sought counsel with the Elders of Boigu Island and explained that his brother-in-law ,who had given him his wife was visiting and they agreed to let him stay as well is giving him safe passage back to Badu Island.

While on Boigu Island, the people feasted in celebration with their surprise guest but at the same time on Badu Island those people were feasting in mourning for the unexpected death of Muthuk, the great Hunter. A death feast is similar to awake in Western culture is called Thurabau ai. Two days later the Boigu Islanders took Muthuk back to Badu Island in a canoe or gul. Muthuk leapt from the gul as it swept past the island. He swam a short distance to the beach. He disembarked this way because the Boigu Islanders had not enough time to send the necessary emissaries ahead of this journey and did not want to be considered hostile by the Badu Islanders. The canoe set Muthuk ashore this way, returning to Boigu Island without one man having set foot on Badu Island. As he was getting out of the water his wife and children appeared on the foreshore.

On seeing Muthuk arrive after thinking he was dead, they ran down to the beach. Crying his wife cried white, from this new shock, having thought him dead, finding him alive and then realising what would happen next. She pleaded with Muthuk to return to Boigu Island in the canoe. We should have returned to avoid it and start a new life. If only you had returned yesterday, as we have just completed your death feast.  If people see you they will kill you. We have already had your death feast they will think you are a ghost.

The sorcerers discover that Muthuk had returned, they ordered the men to kill him.

The men found Muthuk with and his family on the beach and they chased him through the scrub along the beach past Damanab and Garbutt and caught up with him between the point known as Barbaras. Muthuk ran for his life. They caught him between a Barabaras and the rock called Tagain.  He was beaten to death with a club or Gabba Gabba. He was beheaded with a bamboo knife called an Upi. He turned to stone, and this stone can be found on Badu Island today and is called Muthuk. When he was killed all the flying foxes or Sapur flew from Badu Island to Boigu Island and flew in a circle around the island. Seeing this, Gainau immediately knew that her brother was dead, and she cried.

The top of this print shows a crocodile depicting New Guinea and the pig is that country’s currency. The bottom of the print has a season calendar showing the different seasons in the Torres Strait as indicated by movement and breading of different animals. In between is the huge range of animals that Muthuk used to hunt and catch, but not share. The story of his hunting life, journey to and from Boigu and death are throughout this print.

This is one of the key stories from Badu Island told to each generation regarding the consequences of greed.

This print was entirely made by hand, carved from lino and transferred to paper by Robert Mast. It is an authentic piece of contemporary Indigenous Australian art and constitutes part of the culture of Badu Island and the Western Torres Strait islands