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I'm Alick Tipoti.
I'm an artist.
I have four beautiful children…
..with my beautiful wife, Taumatini.
She is from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.
I grew up on Badu.
It's in the western islands of the Torres Strait
between Papua New Guinea and the Australian mainland.
A dot in the western Pacific Ocean.
OK.
It's on!
Alright, let's make magic.
- My home language is Kala Lagaw Ya…
..of the Maluyligal nation of Zenadh Kes.
You may know Zenadh Kes by another name…
..Torres Strait.
And now there's a lot of interest
in the art and culture from the Torres Strait too.
My art has found its way to many galleries around the world.
It means sometimes I have to travel to faraway places.
But wherever I go…
..the ocean keeps me connected to Badu.
One of the most amazing museums I have ever seen
is on the edge of the cliffs in Monaco
known as the Temple of the Sea.
Monaco's Oceanographic Museum
was built almost 120 years ago
by Prince Albert I of Monaco.
A great, great adventurer and seafarer.
Albert I believed that art, science and nature
held the key to our planet's future,
and I've heard that Albert's great, great grandson,
Albert II, is following in his ancestor's footsteps.
My first memory was not only going to the museum
and my sister Caroline and I started going there
when we were two years old.
That's the advantage of having…
..one of the world's finest oceanographic museums
virtually down the block from us.
And so we would go there and visit the aquarium
and visit the different collections on a regular basis.
- I was in Monaco for the Taba Naba exhibition.
There was art from many Australian Indigenous artists.
I had my bronze sculpture dugong there
but I think the turtle design
on top of the roof of the Oceanographic museum
be really capture,
put Torres Strait art on the map from a different perspective.
This is the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco we're talking about…
..and it's a big space that they put that work on
for the world to see, you know.
Me and my boys were there,
my Zugubal dancers, we probably performed there.
I think Alick Tipoti has an art
which is very strongly related to his ancestor's view.
That's the reason why we organised
the Taba Naba exhibition of Indigenous artists
who did not lose their relationship with the nature.
- At the opening night, after our performance,
everybody else dressed up in suits.
We were just in flower shirts and jeans.
Just being islanders in a foreign country.
Meeting and greeting people.
Obviously I had to meet the Prince
in front of the work that was framed.
The same work that was on the roof.
I was just talking to Prince Albert
as though he was just a normal guy
and I may have said to him that…
"..Thank you for having me here in your country.
"Maybe one day you can come and visit my island."
You know, I think they took that and, you know, parked it.
It was an exciting moment.
Once in a lifetime to invite someone of that stature
to come to your place,
sit down, relax away from his schedule and his lifestyle
and come and you share your lifestyle with him.
But why would Albert of Monaco
come to the other side of the earth?
Monaco is very exciting…
..but when I go home to Badu
I realise how special it is here.
It's what inspires me to do my work.
Everything I do in my art practice
is based on ancient time.
Long before my time.
Long before my grandfather's time.
Long before my great, great grandfather's time.
So it's more the proper ancient time.
Long time ago.
When I'm carving lino,
it's all about traditional patterns or cultural patterns.
We call it lago mineral island patterns.
It's lino printing where we print on paper.
But it's an introduced technique
because obviously this works like a stamp.
It's the best way to obtain that same feeling
that our ancestors be do on artefacts from long time ago.
I live the life today…
..but I abide by ancient cultural protocol.
So it got to a stage where I experienced many encounters
and to the point where I could feel that
it was not just one spirit here, it was more than one.
So it was pretty scary at first but then, like I said,
with the speaking in language
it really connects me to those spiritual ancestors
and strengthens my way of thinking
you know, guiding me through my art practice.
The conch shell or the trumpet shell,
we call them bu shell or bu.
That one plays many important role in our language.
Not just us, all throughout the Pacific.
When we blow the bu shell…
..we are actually acknowledging the winds.
Kuki go north west…
..Naygay go north east…
..Woewraw, south east…
..and Zey, south west.
Spiritual beings, Zugubal…
..they control the weather…
..thunder, lightning…
..they control the wind, the rain, the currents.
We are seafarers.
Our ancestors were seafarers.
When we are fishing, hunting,
we acknowledge the knowledge that has been passed down to us.
The reefs are us, we are the reefs.
They look after us and we look after them.
To be a good hunter…
..there needs to be strong connection with the hunted.
Like myself, Edmund Tamwoy, recently returned to Lap Badu
after many years away.
He's passionate about the crayfish industry.
His wife is my cousins sister…
..and his young sons,
they are my waduams, I am their uncle.
- I'm learning how to catch the crays
and I'm learning how you approach them.
When the tide's coming in
you don't go catch it from the way the tide is coming
'cause they'll make the dust and scare them away.
I'm hoping for like, lots of crays
and big ones so we get money
and I help my dad with the business.
There are great impacts
in the waters of the Torres Strait
in the last few years.
In the fishing industry as a business operator.
I'm considering the environmental changes
so that we can sustain and manage
and protect our sea country for the future
to ensure that these reefs and corals are preserved
for generations coming.
The reason I make my art…
..it's all about cultural preservation.
That's what motivates me to do what I do.
I am not a Christian.
I can't see myself forgiving those early missionaries
for forbidding language and culture of my people.
Christianity came to the Torres Strait in 1871.
The price we paid was our language and our culture.
Though there are many islanders
whose ancestors come from many other parts of the Pacific,
we are Melanesian.
The European name for the islands
came from the Spanish explorer…
..Captain Luiz vas des Torres,
on his way through the Strait to Manila in 1606.
Pearling began in the 1840s
and over the next 50 years
thousands of people came to the islands.
At one stage, there were more than 100 pearl luggers
working the region.
Badu was a leader in the industry.
These islands were annexed by Queensland in 1879.
Things got progressively worse
with the restrictions on interisland travel
and the introduction of curfews and segregation.
How sweet it was a century later
that it was a Torres Strait Island man
who changed the course of Australia's modern history.
In 1992, Uncle Eddie Koiki Mabo, from Mer
won a landmark High Court case
leading to land rights for all Indigenous Australians.
I like to think Uncle Koiki was a warrior
just like his ancestors.
- This place reminds me of my ancestors.
That was head-hunters time.
- Aunty Geiza, is a relative of mine.
She is a strong personality in our community.
- My great, great, great grandfather
beheaded the last Zaro just in front of Dognor.
Back in those days, there were war parties,
there were canoes…
..coming to fight here and beheading was like a trophy.
A trophy for them.
All my ancestors here,
who have roamed and lived here as nomads…
..and…
I'm gonna…
..I'm gonna cry because I feel their presence here today.
- I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations…
..on behalf of the General Assembly…
..His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco.
I was not really optimistic
about the Prince to go to the other side of the earth
and to visit the Tipoti's family.
- I knew a bit of the geography
and I saw Badu island on a map.
I learned about Badu principally through Alick.
When Alick did present me with an oral invitation,
I thought it was wonderful
and I said of course, I'd love to come when the time is right.
The prince willingness was very strong,
and he sort of bent his agenda.
The buzz is in the air
and the Prince of Monaco is coming to Badu.
It was suddenly announced that he was coming to Badu.
At first they can't believe it, they think it's a joke,
but now it's, people have realised
because they've heard it from me, the prince is coming.
It was a really big surprise.
We're going to have some dancing
and we're going to have some kai kai for him when him come
so he can really feel the welcoming from my community.
- We're making these leis for our visitors,
Prince Albert and his team from Monaco.
We're gonna make nice lei.
He will be very happy to receive these.
I think this one's good for the Prince, eh?
Yeah.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
And it's your first one too, well done, darling.
Beautiful
Now, come here, everyone, come here.
I want to speak about something, come.
Closer.
You know tomorrow we go there, airport, right?
And the prince will come.
Then we'll do the kai kai there tomorrow night.
On Friday…
Well, I think it's important when people of such stature
visit our community,
I think to have them participate in planting a coconut tree
or some sort of aikyoik,
that we'll remember that visit for a long time to come.
And I can say to my children,
that when Prince of Monaco visit he planted these coconut trees,
so when him come,
we'll make sure he does that here
and yeah, look forward to it.
I think he'll be more than happy to do that as well.
How come him come here for?
- Him come because him want to visit Daddy,
but you know how come?
Every year, every year the climate it change,
the sun become more hot,
the wave, the tide become more high
and rock is becoming?
- Sand. - The sand.
It can destroy the island.
It can come slowly, water will enter.
You know, my eldest daughter Dagum, them 16 now.
I think they might be too young really
to understand the impact we got from this climate change.
They never seen what was before.
When we were small…
, the reefs,
, the corals,
they were different from today.
Now it's harmed, you know, because the warm,
global warming it's different,
some parts of the reef are dying.
So we see the changes and we are only in our 40s,
I'm only in my 40s, I've seen the changes.
But the elders before me who are in their 70s,
oh, they've seen more big changes.
Of course, I love travelling,
love to discover new places around the world
and this was I think, a unique opportunity
to go to a part of the world,
and a part of Australia that is…
..still relatively not well known.
- Today it's a big day, Prince is arriving.
We don't know what to expect because…
..whether there's gonna be high security,
you know, Prince is Prince and bodyguards.
First time for someone so important to come to the island.
Look at you, beautiful.
- You ready? - Everyone ready?
- He'll come in his jet to Horn Island first,
then on Skytrans,
he will land at the Badu airstrip
at Wakaid village.
- This is for real, Prince Albert will be on Badu,
come along and see for yourself,
we've got a real life Prince on the island.
- The elders are really excited too
because, mothers especially, all them aunties…
..all only read about the prince and his mother
and the royal families in newspapers or magazines.
To have you know, the son of Grace Kelly visit Badu
and sit among them,
I think all of them excited about.
- We're gonna meet him at the airstrip,
elders going to welcome Prince onto Badu.
To actually land and stand on the soil of Badu.
- We will perform la gabalta dance
just to show that bit of history.
- So, it's going to be a good week
knowing that Prince is on the island.
- How are you? - Good, good, good.
Prince Albert of Monaco.
Welcome.
- No, it's a pleasure. - Thank you.
It's a privilege, thank you very much.
Translated, he said,
"Prince Albert of Monaco, we welcome you.
"Elders past and present, we welcome you to our country
"and we are blessed by your visit.
"It's a good day for us,
"somebody of your calibre to visit our island."
Thank you, it's a privilege to be here.
Thank you for welcoming us to your community.
It's a marvellous day for us in Badu.
We all are happy.
My name is Emmanuel.
Emmanuel.
And this is elder, Uncle Ronny.
- Uncle Ronny. - Uncle Ronny.
I think the main thing is, is gotta make him fit in.
Make him be like one of us.
No royal no, what they do in the castle,
how they serve him back home.
But he's going to be a local boy.
Prince Albert II.
Hello.
How are you?
Welcome, I'm well thank you.
Very pleasant to see you.
Yeah, yeah, welcome to my country, thank you.
- Thank you for visiting. - Thank you very much.
- This is my wife… - A pleasure to be here.
..this is my wife, we'd like to present you with a lei.
Lovely to meet you.
This is my wife, Matini.
And Rob, this is my eldest daughter.
- Hello. - Good to see you.
- How are you? - I'm well, thank you.
- Welcome. - I'm so happy to be here.
So, um, we will head off in a vehicle
to sign in at the local council office.
OK.
There we go, this is great.
First thing, let's hope the car starts.
But looks like it's good.
You'll get to come to my camp.
Yeah, well, we saw your camp also.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, that's right, yeah.
Ariel showed us where it was, nice beach out front there.
- It's the longest beach on the island.
It's our place, this is not a big city…
..but sometimes when we want to get away from the crowd,
we just go to camp where it's nice and peaceful.
You know, as you see on the map it's a small island, it's a dot.
And, well, you know.
Well, Monaco's a dot as well.
A very busy one.
When we have visitors come to Badu,
it's our business to know
what they're doing on the island.
That's why we have this system in place
where they have to sign in at the council office.
Hello
- Hello. - Hi.
- Even though it's part of Australia
or part of Queensland…
..we are Badugal, proud…
..of being Badugal, independent.
And I might forget and I might ask you,
"Where is your pass?"
Hi!
- How are you? Good.
- Are you the Prince? - Yes.
- Can I shake your hand? - How you doing?
-Good. - Can I shake your hand?
- How are you doing? - Can I shake your hand?
- Yes. - Thank you.
- How are you? - Can I?
- Can I shake your hand, sir? - Yes.
Thank you.
I love this um, frangipani lei.
Do You want it?
- Yes.
OK, there we go.
- You want to have it back? - OK, OK, thank you.
Bye!
These are our beautiful active kids,
they liven up the community.
- . Thank you.
- OK, need to go now. - Thank you, Prince.
Here you are, I'll give it back to you.
- See you. - Here, oh.
Here, oh.
Here, oh!
Can I shake your hand, sir?
- Thank you, thank you. - Can I shake your hand?
- Bye, cheers. - Bye.
So this is our local supermarket.
- That's great. - Yeah.
- Looking good. - Yeah.
- Hello, everybody! - Hello, Jodie.
- Badu island being a remote place,
there are no restaurants for the prince to dine out.
Nick, where's the vegemite?
Vegemite, um…
Susan, where's the vegemite?
It was really interesting to watch him,
walking through the aisles of the local store
and buying stuff.
Yeah, you never know.
You never know.
OK.
Thank you very much, appreciate it.
- That's the paper bag I was talking about, see?
Yeah, that's great.
No more plastic bags, huh?
Good.
What's that one?
Is that a dugong?
Oh, let me show you.
There are many reasons that the dugong and turtle
are a part of our culture, in terms of hunting and eating.
It is part of our ceremonies, our rituals.
Beautiful animals.
Very beautiful animals.
We have our knowledge about dugong
and the Torres Strait Islanders from our forefathers,
from Uncle Ronny and now down to us.
Wow.
We'll manage protocols have been placed
generations ago, that's why we still have them today.
You don't take what you want, you just take what you need.
- Our feast, our kaikai tonight,
will include special cultural food.
Turtle and dugong as well as pork, crayfish, shellfish,
vegetables and damper.
So this is the pub house?
This is the pub house.
OK.
And this is the accommodation.
Wow.
It's toilet, bathroom.
Looks nice.
Couple of rooms.
Table here, you can put the lei on the table.
- Absolutely. - Yeah.
Put the…
..put the lei on the table.
Nice and cosy.
Fantastic.
- I will give that to you. - OK.
- So I don't get blamed for… - The official…
- .. getting you locked out. - .. handing over.
Yeah, yeah, welcome to Badu.
- How are you? - Hello, thank you.
Hello.
- This is my nephew, he was hitting the drums today.
- Oh, that's right, yes. - Yeah, that's my nephew, Ollie.
I hope you enjoy the performance tonight.
I know I'm gonna enjoy the performance, thank you.
But I hope they'll feed you too.
You're the main one.
You'll find there's a lot of shy people.
That's OK.
I used to be shy too, you know.
How are you?
The beautiful ladies of Badu Island.
- How are you? - Thank you.
- People think that Monaco is an island.
It's very interesting to be able to explain
that no, we're on the coast.
And we're very much a maritime country,
but we're not an island.
Even if Badu is much larger than Monaco
it's still a small place and a small community.
We're connected by this global ocean.
- Laurie Nona chose to lead the community.
He was the Torres Strait regional council representative
for Badu island.
Our water is getting warmer…
..faster than the global warming.
Torres Strait, our reefs are already dying.
Our reefs will die more.
- We've known each other since we were little.
We've travelled the same journey.
We've moved away from home, learnt the English language…
..enjoyed life outside of Badu,
we always talk about preserving language.
Would passing our way of life in our children.
We're basically on the same path in life.
You can see it. It goes through, goes through, yes, yes.
In the afternoon, we'll see the herd of dugongs
just eating along here.
The dugong are not migrating in the same areas,
they're going on top of reef.
I mean, there's no seaweed on top of reef.
What are these dugongs doing, you know like…
..the turtle mating are coming very late.
The life around us is at one with us…
..and we see changes within that,
they're ringing bells.
It's changing.
I've lived in the city and I live in my home…
..and I can see how very easily people in the city
can not recognise climate change.
I'd really challenge people to come out to our region,
right in the middle of summer.
The sand wasn't that hot 20 years ago.
Give him a round of applause.
I would like to of course, thank you for this invitation
to come and visit Badu island.
My great, great, grandfather, Prince Albert I,
used to say that science and art
were the two driving forces of civilisation.
This was, he said this, over 100 years ago.
And I think it's still very true today.
Thank you very, very much.
Here.
Here we go.
Oh, thank you.
- It's a small community, but it's a very tight community.
Everybody is very friendly and very welcoming of course,
but everybody's very close to one another.
And I had that impression of it being like a big family.
More or less everybody knows everybody else.
But they all try to help one another.
You had enough, had enough to eat?
- That in itself is also very similar to Monaco
because we are also a small community
and a lot of people know everybody else.
I can't say I know all 38,000,
but, so, there are similarities there
but I thought that on Badu
everybody cares for one another…
..and that's very heart-warming.
- Aunty Denna taught me when I was in primary school.
She's been passing down cultural knowledge
for many, many years now.
She's a very strong leader in singing to preserve language.
Warup is made from the tree
and when they make that hollow…
..make sure that when you put the animal skin,
make sure that the sound is going like deep sound
or light sound.
And when you sing you using language words because…
..we teach you to make the hand movements with the songs,
each word of the songs.
Every songs have meanings.
Looking at the sky, looking at the water,
weather, if it's calm.
So we learn island dancing not only daytime,
we dance at night.
With the moonlight, we dance and sing.
It's my great privilege
to welcome His Highness Prince Albert
and special delegates to Badhulgaw Ngurpay Lag.
This is an incredible opportunity
to have Prince Albert here at our school,
to experience what I truly believe
with my whole heart is the best school in Australia.
- We enjoy coming to school each day
to further our education
and enjoy the learning activities
that our teachers and teacher aides provide for us.
And we are so proud of our local artists
being recognised internationally.
It is our history, our myths and legends, our stories,
our songs and traditional dances,
our cultural identity
and strong affinity to the land, sea and air
that is captured in our art that makes our style so unique,
captivating and appealing.
When I'm mingling in the community
and community meetings, public presentations,
we speak in language.
And we encourage our kids to be around that environment.
Now, the children all go away for high school.
We as language speakers, we stress about this every day.
Especially when our children are away.
When we speak language,
we learn more about the environment.
Language in songs,
is a reminder to us as a people
that we have to continue to look after our island
and reefs and waters.
The younger generation…
..on Badu, but in different parts of the world,
is taking hold of environmental issues
and ocean related issues
and make it their own, their own fight.
- Keep up the awesome learning, Kingston.
- A sore spot of my visit to Badu
but it's the same everywhere else
that I've been to in the world,
every island I've been to.
In the Pacific, the plastic pollution is there.
Makes me sick, really,
but I think there's a big movement now
to not only want to clean up
but to stop the production as it is.
It has to be part of a circular economy scheme
that we have to put in place
because otherwise we're going to be
buried in plastics pretty soon.
This pollution can come from thousands of miles away,
sometimes it's in microparticles and you can't even see it.
We can't go on pouring
8 to 10 million tonnes of plastic
into our oceans every year.
See what I mean?
Gonna get a bit wet.
Yeah.
But we're used to it.
It's called the let us spray moment.
Well, me and Prince,
we two have our private conversations
and he really, really appreciate it.
I mean, he shared his experience.
I tried to share as much as I can.
We went diving in the waters here in the Torres Strait,
so got to see the coral and the reef.
Pretty early on,
our parents introduced us to every kind of activity
that we could do on the water.
I learned how to dive,
and it's just unbelievable
to be able to live and experience underwater
and to see not only the beauties
but to also see, unfortunately, the damages.
That prompted me to want to take action
in a more personal way.
To try to best address these issues.
- Reef, the ones that are exposed at low tide,
they dead now,
not like before, the colour,
and now they're all dying.
Some turning white.
It's heartbreaking to see
a big batch of ghost nets
stuck on a big log
and several turtles dead,
stuck in it,
and obviously what others see large,
especially large sea creatures get stuck there.
It's not our fault, we never introduced net,
but it happens on a global,
on an international level.
But somehow we have to be aware of that
and make people aware of that,
that we need to look after the sea creatures as well.
There's always dugong swimming and turtles swimming along here.
- Really? - Yeah.
Every time I see a dugong or something,
or even I see a turtle
and it sort of inspires me to do new work.
That's great, so it's a place of inspiration.
A place of inspiration, yeah.
You're drinking a Great Northern.
Well, I need to bring one back with me
because I promised a friend of mine
I'd bring back a beer from every stop I make on this trip.
Well, you have to take it not from Australia,
Cairns, Townsville, or wherever you go,
you'll have to take it from Badu.
Yeah, absolutely.
Uncle Ronny, ,
he's my father's first cousin.
So Uncle Ronny is a father figure for me.
He knows a lot,
he speaks from what he's experienced, he's seen.
It's always good to have his perspective on things.
How hard life was like
working on the boats.
Those times, yeah.
- Prince Albert? - Yes.
- You remember Uncle Ronny. - Absolutely.
- Oh, yeah. - How are you?
I remember you. I'm alright, thank you.
Yeah, good.
Thank you for allowing us into your home.
Yeah, I'm happy, I'm happy you're here.
Where I'm living I stay on my family land.
Yeah.
What a wonderful thing.
- And, uh… - So here we are.
We got them coconuts here.
You can just grab them and put them in the ground.
These are good ones.
So when all my grandchildren come back home,
I tell them about this area,
this where Prince Albert have been standing.
So, I won't forget that.
Well, I won't forget it either.
Yeah. Yeah.
- My dad used to work in the Torres Strait pilots,
so we went to Thursday Island.
That was really good growing on Thursday Island,
learning to speak English
because I only spoke language.
I couldn't even go to the shop and buy something
because I didn't know what to say.
We had a movie theatre, no cover,
so when it rained, we had to take shelter.
We had white people upstairs,
and half-caste people in the back seat,
canvas seat and the Islanders and Aboriginals
were on wooden seats.
So that was like segregation,
it existed then.
I watched a lot of Grace Kelly's movies on Thursday Island.
In 1954, lovely Grace Kelly
of Philadelphia and Hollywood won an Oscar,
the high point of her career as a movie queen.
She wed Prince Rainier of Monaco
and as Princess Grace, left films
to help rule the tiny principality
on the Mediterranean.
We wanted to let him know,
we personally, from the magazine,
we knew his mum.
And through films that we watched
on Thursday Island,
and how we were touched to Princess Grace Kelly.
I did shed tears for mum
because she was wonderful,
very privileged to have met you
and this afternoon, talk to you about mum.
She's in our heart,
beautiful lady.
- And all our aunties that you know deceased,
she was an idol to them.
Like yesterday, you walked into the school gate.
I was standing right there
and I was really emotional, thinking,
just thinking of the gravesite,
all our aunties and mothers.
Wish they were like here too.
I followed that part when she first met your dad
and then for the second time she met him.
You know, he was the love of her life, eh.
And then when the accident was on the news now,
like, you know, was so very tragic.
I'm very touched by all your stories
of how you came to know about my mother
and how you came to follow her and follow her life,
not only her life as an actress, of course,
but her life as
Princess of Monaco and as my mother.
Mother to my sisters and I.
It wasn't just her beauty, she was also beautiful inside.
These ladies that live on the other side of the world
in a country that my mother never travelled to,
never visited,
that they were touched by
my mother's personality
and by her warmth of heart
and spirit,
was really very touching
and very emotional for me, you know.
I'll never forget that moment.
The visit of the Prince Albert of Monaco
to Badu, for us,
we felt that he was a very down to earth man.
Somebody who understood
and appreciated our way of life,
who we are, and our region.
Our economy, our community, our future
which is the children,
and trying to advocate
so that their life to come, is culture,
is the environment
and is jobs through those things.
Our language, for example, we're losing it
because our governments don't really give a rat's ass
about preserving our language.
Australian government is the most poorest government
in relation to preservation of language.
Aboriginal languages and our languages.
There's nothing in place.
Even though it's our responsibility to teach it,
but if the country had that interest,
then we would have that support
and so we would be probably in our curriculums,
injected where there is a proper language program
just like French, just like Japanese,
just like, you know.
But in Australia there is not Kalaw Lagaw Ya in the classroom.
But Monaco, our own national language
was disappearing until my father agreed to…
That it be taught in schools again.
High school students in Monaco
can present in Monegasque
which is the name of the language
for their French baccalaureat.
So it's…
I hope that that could be the same in your country.
You would relate to this, Prince,
because it leads back to climate change
because like we were talking about migratory birds.
They all coincide with the season
and that can only be taught by language.
We have big erosion,
big chunk of our beaches taken.
Little islands in the Torres Strait
are going to be lost.
They won't have anybody living on the islands.
Two problems, one of the things is the sand banks
are getting higher because the tides are getting higher.
And one of the things council is discussing
is the evacuation of communities, of other islands.
So we've got an evacuation plan
that is now on the table for discussion.
So the elders don't want to accept
that they have to move.
When somebody just refuses to believe it
and say, "No, that will never happen,
"our ancestors spirits are here,
"they won't let it happen."
So they truly believe that.
Climate change is a big issue
and our industry in crayfishing.
Because that's where we earn our money from.
From the ocean.
Yeah, that's a big one, mate.
You caught one.
- I'd like to see Badu as it used to be.
We are pearling luggers and Badu was rich.
And for the only way
to have that coming in
is setting up employment for locals.
Ok then, no worries then.
I was expecting about five boats,
there's only two boats coming.
There's one of the fishermen coming from Mabuiag, yeah.
It's not good news for me
because I'm expecting to fill a plane up tomorrow.
It's a direct flight from Badu to Cairns.
So I have about 600kg, that's a lot,
but not what I wanted, I wanted more.
At least about 900.
In the morning from 4:30 to 7:45,
we'll start packing.
We put them into boxes alive to be shipped off.
I've travelled 45 minutes to Thursday Island today.
I think it's very important
that we work closely with Prince Albert.
Looking into the climate changes,
how it's effecting the Torres Strait.
How you going?
Yeah, all good, mate, made it here safely.
- Fantastic. - Yeah.
Welcome to the Solander.
At the moment, we're in the early planning phases
of a joint Monaco Australian expedition
that would be held aboard this vessel, the RB Solander.
- Mate. - Hey there, brother.
Welcome aboard.
Yeah, thank you very much for the invitation, mate.
We're working with the Badu islanders
and Edmund Tamwoy as a real partnership
to understand what's going on here.
Well, welcome aboard to Solander.
This is a new thing for us,
they are the traditional custodians.
They literally have centuries of knowledge of these waters.
They are the original scientists.
They're intimately connected to the sea here.
And they want to be involved in finding solutions.
At the time I knew very little about Badu,
before the Prince's visit.
He was the connector,
he was the facilitator bringing all these things together.
So are we going to see some wildlife on the way there?
There are snakes on the island, right?
- There are snakes on the island.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's pythons and lizard, lots of lizard.
We've got the frill neck lizard,
we've got heaps of those here.
Decent size ones,
they're probably heads are big like my fist.
- So we have to watch where we step.
Oh, no, I've cleared my camp.
I teach the kids about the snakes.
But I've made sure that
I've cleared it where they don't really come up to camp.
- About that tree. - Really?
What, because it needs beer?
I think so, yeah.
OK.
That's the one.
There we go.
Sorry to lean on you.
Nah, you're right. I'm here to support you.
There you go, as much as you can.
- And that's it. - Yeah?
- And I'll cover it. - And then we cover it up.
And then we just cover it up like that.
- You can help me if you want. - Sure.
- That's the one. - OK.
Perfectly in.
Thank you.
I can tell my children that Prince Albert planted these.
And then he can tell his children
that he planted those.
And one day maybe his children will visit here
to see where father planted the coconut.
Thank you, Alick. That was great.
Let's check out the sunset. Got your glasses on?
Check out the sunset.
There was something, there was some connection there
and that you start cracking jokes,
it just flowed very naturally.
And then of course seeing him
in his own environment, in his home with his family,
brought a completely different perspective.
I mean, he was the same man, but to see him
in his own environment was something wonderful.
OK.
This is one of my…
This is actually my longest lino print.
- Really? - Yeah.
Hold that there and we'll just unfold it this way.
And this will never stop.
- So that's the… - That's the .
The .
- , yeah.
It's beautiful, really, it's so…
And it's 8.2m long.
- Oh, the bu. - Yeah, the bu shell. Yeah.
When is it gonna stop?
I got it.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
It's a fantastic piece, beautiful piece.
Thank you.
Prince Albert, welcome and thank you.
It's a special visit, as you know.
The Badu community welcomed you.
But I'd like to acknowledge again
my beautiful wife
for standing there beside me for this.
We love you.
Well listen, I don't know what to say.
Except a thousand thank yous for your friendship,
for your hospitality,
for the incredible warmth that we've received.
We've all had a wonderful, wonderful time here.
It was incredible
to get to experience not only your hospitality
but the hospitality of everyone on this island
and to get to know your culture better,
to get to know your everyday life
and your…
The incredible challenges that you're facing.
The good humour and the wonderful attitude
and wonderful spirit that
you and your people have is really remarkable.
So I wanted to thank you both from the bottom of my heart.
I think I speak on behalf of everyone here,
we've had an incredible and wonderful stay here.
Thank you so much.
Let's give them a big round of applause.
Thank you for coming.
Thank you, my friend. Thank you.
We women, called Badu .
Badu women come together.
We talked about how we could look after the environment.
And be more strong
in saying what we want.
Geiza started the women group
like, for us to encourage women not to be shy.
Me and Geiza been through that
because we learnt from our aunties and uncles.
How to welcome outsiders to come.
Welcome to country.
So not only men do this,
women can do that in 2020s.
It makes us want to do more
and talk about it and teach our children,
the younger generation that this is real.
- With this whole climate change thing
that's happening to us,
we can only educate our children
not to contribute to making it worse.
And we can only encourage them and educate them
and make them aware that
you have to think about these things.
Not just throw plastic everywhere
and just not care about the environment.
After the Prince be visit,
I be get invitation from the museum
for me to come over
and, you know, rub shoulders again with the Prince.
This time I wanted to share this moment
with my wife and my eldest child, Dagum.
Show them around Monaco,
show them the museum and the work,
just normal tourist thing.
Oh, god.
Woo. Woo.
Them probably still asleep.
Baby. Ah, she's awake.
Are you ready, we're gonna go soon.
We're gonna go out.
- The sun's out. - Ah, nice.
Just having family with me, it's like..
I've been talking and telling them all about my trips
and now they can see it for themselves.
This beautiful city of Monaco and, yeah, it's good.
Oh, look at them cafes, man, they're real pretty.
When I go Monaco, it's very different,
different from my lifestyle.
I'm not used to walking and people tourist.
I'm just used to me, myself, my family and my community.
Oh, look this one here.
Ah, I like this one.
1991.
Look there.
Everybody smile.
Everybody poke your tongue.
- Monaco's very urbanised city state.
We have the wonderful Mediterranean in front of us
and, that I think is the great link,
is that we're connected
by this global ocean.
Of course, knowing that I was named after Prince Albert I,
and seeing his huge statue in the museum,
I was so fascinated and overwhelmed also.
By all accounts,
Albert's great, great grandfather Prince Albert I,
was a remarkable man.
At 22 years old,
he decided he wanted to have
a career in the new science of oceanography.
So he set about a lifetime of exploring.
He travelled throughout the Mediterranean,
making numerous oceanographic studies,
maps and charts.
He was fascinated by the polar regions
and financed and commanded many expeditions,
collecting specimens for his brand new Oceanographic Museum.
The famous French underwater explorer,
Jacques Cousteau,
was director from 1957 to 1988.
Many scientific achievements and inventions
happened because of Prince Albert I's support.
There's a cute picture of where we're with our parents,
my sister and I,
but everybody's looking at something
that was displayed on a table
and I'm looking back
and looking at my great-great-grandfather there.
And this huge, what seemed to me like a huge statue,
it's not so huge now when I look at it,
photographic evidence of my inspiration
by Prince Albert I.
You know that the mission
of the Oceanographic Institute
and since our creation more than 100 years ago
is to know and to protect the ocean.
I think that the story of Alick
and the Oceanographic Museum,
it's a really nice story.
First of all we had a very warm
and very nice welcome
by the Tipoti family in Badu Island.
Then we had the opportunity to continue our change
and develop our friendship.
As you all know, my name is Alick Tipoti
from Badu Island in the Torres Strait.
We're going to be doing some lino cuts today.
- So we are very happy have Alick Tipoti here
and to welcome them at the Oceanographic Museum.
The western civilisation,
we are very strong in nature science.
But sometimes not so strong
in understanding the connection
between nature science and human science.
This is when we keep our fingers crossed.
- Progressively, we've got the feeling
that art is a door
which will enable us to open and to find a way
to understand a little bit better
that relationship through emotion.
Wow, that's freaky, man.
With like a high heel and a boot. How do you feel?
I'm ready for…
Change the nation meeting.
Meeting of the United Nations.
But anyway…
Sounds good.
Darling, darling. Sorry, wait there.
Still got the sand from Cairns.
No, you've got the button off though.
No, no… Oh.
There, you can leave it on.
Wow.
- Hi. Good to see you - Good to see you.
- How are you going? - Good to see you.
- Welcome. - Thank you.
Hi, how are you?
It's so good to be here.
See the familiar faces at the museum.
So, I'm sorry I have a little something on my head here.
What happened to you?
I had a little procedure, nothing bad.
Nothing major. That's good.
But it just had to be done,
but unfortunately, the timing was bad.
So how are things in Badu?
Things are very well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was such a great time. Thank you again for that.
Everyone's still talking about it.
People didn't believe that you were visiting until you came,
and then they were like, "Wow, really?"
It's really great.
Squeeze in.
- Dagum. - Yes.
You are now a young ambassador
of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco.
I have been given a young ambassador award.
So now we have to call you Madam Ambassador.
My daughter Dagum receiving
the youth ambassador award
from the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco,
as a father, I am so proud.
You can only support
in whatever they choose in terms of leadership.
Because I might say,
"Oh, I want you to be community leader."
You can invest in her as much as you want,
but she might turn out differently.
Or have interest somewhere else.
She's surprised.
Yeah, at first I saw my name.
Oh, my gosh.
I'm going to treasure this forever.
It's signed by him.
That's fantastic.
There we are, planting.
Yeah, they're shooting really well because the rains…
They're really shooting up. They're about… Yeah
That's great.
That was lovely, all the…
That was great. That was a great moment.
We were able to have those nice conversations. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, she was great, she was a great lady.
Ladies are good.
I really appreciate my identity, where I'm from,
the island that I live in.
A lot of young artists look up to me
because I'm recognised.
You can be a really good artist
but you have to have a really good cultural knowledge,
on the same level as your art practice.
Wow.
- We have the assistance of Alick
for organising the exhibition
to show what we did do in Badu island.
I think that Alick's art
is a kind of door open
which enable us to understand a little bit better
how we can try to reconcile humankind and the sea.
Thank you so much, Matini, Dagum and Alick for your welcome.
AIMS is very keen on knowing more about the top end.
Our strategy basically takes our Indigenous engagement
and puts it very much in the frame
of wanting to blend your traditional knowledge
of sea country with our more western science,
if you want to call it that.
So we can come together,
we can learn from you and you learn from us.
When I was in Monaco,
Alick was there in the museum
and we talked about the expedition
would focus very specifically on the Torres Strait.
The Prince I know is interested in coral reefs
and that's a key part of our strategy as well.
I think that the planned expedition is a wonderful thing.
If there's a way that we can preserve
or regrow the corals,
then basically it's just helping the marine life.
It's more about awareness
and getting people active, I think,
as a community, as a region.
I really hope that we will be
able to help on marine protected areas,
on coral reefs, on different species,
on different pollutions
and especially on plastics.
But the most important part
is to maybe now to start working on preparation,
thinking, designing of the new science mission
in the Torres Strait.
- I spent a bit of time with Prince Albert II.
In the midst of everything,
all the media frenzy and everything,
he made sure that I wasn't left behind.
He kept on calling for me
and making sure that I was part of the group.
Prince Albert II has a very, very busy life
and I think one of the things
I will cherish is for him
to put some of those busy schedules aside
and spend a little bit of time with me,
I thought that was very special.
And that's where I really, I suppose,
connected with him just as a person.
And I'll remember that for the rest of my life.
In 10 to 20 years' time,
our language is gonna disappear
and that's my only concern.
We can only try to preserve the language.
That's the core of our culture.
The singing and the dancing will continue.
The fire of that will continue to burn.
I see the fire in my children.
It's my job to make sure that they pick up firewood
and put it in that fire for it to continue to burn.
I think very much in tune
with what Alick does with his children
and teaching them
how their respect for nature
is very much part of their culture,
and that we cannot survive
without nature and without our natural environment.
I have a tree that I planted on Badu island.
So I hope to go back and see it,
but I hope more importantly
that it will have a long life
so that my children can go back there someday
and see that tree.
And what a great link that that is between us.
Thank you again.
Thank you, Alick. That was great.
First thing, let's hope the car starts.
- The water's on. - The water's on
All our aunties and mothers,
I wish they were like here.
There's always dugongs swimming along here.
It sort of inspires me to do new work.
We don't know what's happening on the other side of the world
in terms of something's happening to the sea.
We still look at the star constellation
but today, we have to actually depend on the technology
to make ourselves aware what's happening over there.
We have to prepare here.
The land, the sea and the sky look after me, as a culture.
We have to look after it as humans.
Torres Strait can't save the planet.
We can only work save our reefs and our water here.
Maybe somehow we can all work together
to basically save the planet.