Kudin

Description

Kudin is the name of my great great grandmother. Though little is known of her, she is said to have been born in Iama (Yam) Island from a strong traditional family.  She was of slight build and raised a family of four sons and one daughter. It seems she adapted to the progressive interests of her husband, Yankee Ned Mosby, a Jewish American who had fought in the American Civil War with the Alabama rifle battalion and later made his way to Australia aboard a whaling ship. He sailed north to the Torres Straits and formed one of the earliest pearling fleets there in the 1870s. Though it was common for men to have several wives at the time, Ned wanted only Kudin. From that time, it became common practice for one-woman/one-man marriages, endorsed further by the Anglican church and the ‘Coming of the Light’ in the late 19th century.

My partner Jemma, herself a Tiwi & Iama (Yam) Islander and I, honoured my ancestral grandmother by naming our daughter Kudin.