Artist Statement: Quaka and her two brothers left their island of Mabuiag on a canoe voyage south to Badu.
Seated between the two brothers in the canoe, Quaka kept moving around and talking incessantly. The noise distracted their paddling and the movement risked capsizing the canoe.
They landed at Wakaid on Badu Island and by this time the two brothers were fed up with the behaviour of their sister. They told her to fetch water in the two water containers or Kusul from an inland creek. When they lost sight of her in the bushes they launched their canoe back out to sea with the intention of leaving her behind.
When Quaka returned to the beach she saw her two brothers paddling away in the far distance. As she cried out repeatedly for them to return she found herself transformed into a Quaka. This is the bird observed on Badu Island today. It never stops still, hopping from branch to branch in an agitated fashion and repeatedly crying out ‘quaka, quaka, quaka'.
The two circular shapes in the print depict the kusul, the water container used throughout the Torres Strait Islands that was made from a hollowed out coconut and sealed with a coconut fibre stopper.
In recent years the artist print medium has been exclusively etchings. This linocut represents Nona's first linocut since his iconic and large 6 metre work ‘Yawarr' created in 2007.

$825.00 CDN
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