Coming of the Light Festival
File:All Saints Anglican Church (2011).jpg on Erub (Darnley Island) in the Torres Strait.]]
The Coming of the Light Festival is celebrated in the Torres Strait Islands on 1 July each year. It commemorates the arrival of the London Missionary Society in Torres Strait at Erub (Darnley Island) on 1 July 1871, introducing Christianity to the region. The predominantly Christian Torres Strait Islanders hold religious and cultural ceremonies across Torres Strait and mainland Australia to celebrate the day.{{cite web |url=http://www.tsra.gov.au/the-torres-strait/events/coming-of-the-light.aspx |title=The Coming of the Light Festival |website=Torres Strait Regional Authority |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102182606/http://www.tsra.gov.au/the-torres-strait/events/coming-of-the-light.aspx |archive-date=2 November 2007}}[https://www.tsirc.qld.gov.au/our-communities/celebrations-holidays Celebrations and holidays]; Torress Strait Island Regional Council[https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/travel-destinations/2015/07/torres-strait-islands-coming-of-the-light-festival/ Torres Strait Islands: Coming of the Light festival]; Australian Geographic, July 21, 2015
Origins
In 1871 representatives of the London Missionary Society (LMS) arrived in the Torres Straits on the schooner Surprise,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5856308 |title=Cruise of the Jeannie Oswald. |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=7,914 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=21 October 1871 |access-date=4 August 2021 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} {{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245692254 |title=The New Guinea Expedition. |newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne) |issue=8118 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=13 January 1872 |access-date=4 August 2021 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} {{efn|For further information about Surprise, see Torres_Strait_Islanders#Coming_of_the_Light.}} which had been chartered by the LMS,{{cite journal | title=Missionary Ships | journal=Shipping Wonders of the World| issue=Part 51| date=26 January 1937| url=https://www.shippingwondersoftheworld.com/missionrary-ships.html | access-date=3 August 2021}}{{cite web | title=The Coming of the Light | website=Anglican Board of Mission | url=https://www.abmission.org/resources.php/217/the-coming-of-the-light | access-date=3 August 2021}} after the French Government had demanded their removal from the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia in 1869. They decided to expand into the Torres Straits and New Guinea.{{cite QHR|15648|All Saints Anglican Church|600873}} Dated |20 January 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2021. 50px Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)] licence. They were represented by two Englishmen, Revs S. Macfarlane and Archibald Wright Murray,{{cite web | last=Gibbney | first=H. J. | title=Samuel Macfarlane |website= Australian Dictionary of Biography | date=1974 | url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/macfarlane-samuel-4090 | access-date=3 August 2021| quote=This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, (MUP), 1974}}{{cite web | last=Hammond | first=Philip | title=Performers mark Coming of the Light | website=The Courier Mail | date=30 June 2011 | url=https://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/performers-mark-coming-of-the-light/news-story/8c1c1f1e50867d6c7e15d7f15855e5c2 | access-date=3 August 2021}} and eight Lifu (Loyalty Islander) evangelists: Tapeso, Elia, Mataika, Guchong, Kerisidui, Wauaded, Sevine and Josaia, and their wives.{{cite web | title=The Bible in the Pacific| first=Archibald Wright |last=Murray |date= 1888| via=Google Books|publisher= James Nisbet and Company | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G6UMAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22The+Story+of+the+Lifu+Mission%22&pg=PA226 | access-date=4 August 2021| pages=226–228}}
The missionaries reached Erub (Darnley Island) on 1 July 1871, an event that came to be known as the "Coming of the Light". Dabad, one of the tribal elders of the island, met them at Kemus Beach. Dabad befriended the missionaries and introduced them to Amani, another tribal elder, and the rest of the Erub Islanders. His role in the bringing of Christianity to the Torres Straits is memorialised by Dabad's Monument at Badog.{{Cite web|url=http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/indigenous/display/91287-dabad%60s-monument|title=Dabad's Monument|website=Monument Australia|access-date=14 July 2016}}
Related
Footnotes
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References
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{{Religion in Australia}}
{{Christianity in Australia}}