The Bruce and Black Collection from Mer (Murray Island), Torres Strait (about 1900)

In 1908, Sydney collector Percy George Theodore Black donated 49 Torres Strait artefacts to the Australian Museum. All the artefacts were collected on Mer. Part of the collection is a complete mourning outfit. Other parts included several small ancestral figures (Ad giz) and two sorcery figures (esau-mani). While the exact date of origin of these artefacts is not known, some were probably made in the first few years of the twentieth century and some probably earlier.