‘When we travel from island to island and when the stars are shining in the sky, we look for a constellation that’s called Tagai, now to us Tagai helps us get home, so when we’re in a boat and we don’t have any compasses and we can’t see at night we look to the sky and we navigate by the stars … When you see Tagai in the sky, Tagai is actually a man in a canoe … He is the warrior who’s going hunting … Tagai also has another meaning — when you follow your Tagai, it means you follow your star, it means that you follow the path that leads you to where you need to be’ – Gail Mabo in ‘Under the Stars for Kids’, Video, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 21 August 2021.

Gail Mabo
Multi-disciplinary artist and dancer Gail Mabo (Piadram, Meriam Mer peoples) began producing large star maps in 2017 as part of her sculptural practice. Gail Mabo is the daughter of celebrated land rights activists Eddie Koiki Mabo (1936–1992) and Bonita Mabo AO (1943–2018). To fulfill her matriarchal obligation, and to honour her father’s legacy, she shares cultural knowledge through her art. Her father has a star, Koiki, named in his honour within the Tagai constellation. In this work, Mabo also pays tribute to her fellow artist Lola Greeno by adding casts of shells they collected together whilst in Tasmania. Held in collections across Australia, this cast bronze Tagai was the Parliament House Art Collection Major Indigenous Art Acquisition in 2023.