Dennis Nona

Kuik (human skulls) were used as currency in the Torres Strait and were traded with coastal people from western New Guinea (now the Indonesian Province of Papua). Important skulls were retained on the islands for rituals and ceremonies. Onto this skull the image of a baby boy is incised. In early times, during such a ritual, the elders would scrape bone from above a skull’s eyebrows, make a paste from the powdered bone and feed it to a baby boy. This treatment prepared the boy to become a powerful warrior.