Gelam

Gelam is the dugong-hero of the eastern Torres Strait, remembered as a boy of Moa Island renowned as a hunter of birds. Resentful that his mother had frightened him by disguising herself as a dogai spirit — and himself guilty of keeping the fat birds and giving her only the lean — he carved a great wooden dugong, loaded it with soils, seeds and fruits, and sailed away to the east. Where he passed he shed his cargo, and where he finally came to rest he turned to stone in the shape of a dugong, raising the island of Mer, whose deep soils and rich gardens are attributed to the earth he carried; the neighbouring islets of Dauar and Waier are reckoned part of the same creative journey. The hill of Gelam on Mer preserves the outline of the dugong to this day.

Domains

• creation of land
• hunting

Powers

• raises Mer, Dauar and Waier by his journey
• transforms into a stone dugong

Sources

• Gelam, a boy hunter of Moa, fled his island in a carved wooden dugong laden with soils and seeds and became the stone dugong that is Mer, creating the Murray Islands.: Lawrie, Margaret. 1970. Myths and Legends of Torres Strait. University of Queensland Press. (primary); Gela, Anne Abednego. Gelam the Man from Moa: A Legend of the People of the Torres Strait Islands. National Library of Australia catalogue no. 59896. (secondary)