His family initially moved to Thursday Island to ensure his attendance at the only high school in the region. A stint as a mechanic’s apprentice followed but was cut short by a move to Cairns. Then, at fifteen, he and a cousin worked on the railway: ‘Hours were extremely long and tiring, from 5am till 10pm. Those days I had thirty island men working in my crew’.12 Islanders were so renowned for their hard work and skill they were also recruited for other labour-intensive industries such as mining. Thaiday moved to the Western Australian Pilbara region and worked as a plant operator at the Wittenoom asbestos mine. After operating many different kinds of machinery at the mine, which undoubtedly contributed to his innate curiosity for methods of activation, Thaiday then returned to Townsville where he met his wife, Elizabeth. In interviews Thaiday emphasises the influence of his father on the production and the performance of his work: My father was a well-known artist, performing artist, one of the best in Darnley … Well I think most of the people from Darnley he teach how to dance … Every time I sing, I don’t have to tell them what to do; they know the movements, they do it from my father.13 In the late 1980s, when he initiated his own dance troupe in Cairns, Thaiday began creating objects to ensure ceremonial events, such as tombstone unveilings, would continue on the mainland. He energised these dance machines with choreography learned from his father, which, from the artist’s own accounts, was particularly vigorous: ‘My father knew a lot of different dancing, the dancing where you jump on people, climb on top of people, stand on your hands’.14 The continued impetus to make his dance machines more and more articulated – ‘Today I am looking at motorising them so all I have to do is flick a switch’ – correlates with the energy and movement of his father’s unique choreography.15 Many have noted the unity of Torres Strait culture, attributing its cohesiveness to the historical contact with external influences – specifically southern New Guinea, western Polynesia and eastern Indonesia – which ensured its constant and confident renewal.16
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Beizam headdress (Shark with shark jaw), 1991 plywood, enamel paint, plastic foam, PVC plastic and cockatoo feathers 46 x 26 x 60 cm Purchased 1992 Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
Hammerhead shark headdress with bait fish, 1995 plywood, paint, feathers, string and plastic 71.5 x 85 x 52 cm (irreg.) Collection: Queensland Government Department for Housing and Public Works Photography: Michael Marzik
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