...traditional sailing canoe...

'When I was a kid growing up, one of the things that my uncle taught me was to make dugouts out of wood. I was really young then. We rigged the dugout canoe up full the way they used to have it, the traditional sailing canoe. And we used to go out fishing, mainly around the home reef on Murray. Then after a while he'd pull the sails down and we just used to paddle, paddle out with outriggers on it. That was during the war years. My mother used to use it a lot. She used to go out after what they call rock cods. At a certain time of the year the rock cod comes out on Murray in abundance. Got some reef fish to eat too. We ceased to use the dugout canoe, but that was the only training I had. Actually I picked navigation up from my dad when occasionally he would work on the dinghies, sailing dinghies. And I'd go out with him for a day or two, and I got used to sailing, sailing with just a sail boat, no motor on it.'

Keywords: canoes, culture, custom, Las, Mer

Loos, Noel and Mabo, Edward Koiki 1996, 'Edward Mabo, His Life and Struggle for Land Rights', University of Queensland Press.
Source: Mabo, Edward Koiki