For hundreds of years, Macassan fishermen from South Sulawesi, Indonesia, travelled over the Timor Sea to Arnhem Land (which they called Marege) to collect highly prized trepang (sea slug) and to share knowledge with Australian Aboriginal people living along the coastal fringe – ‘below the wind’. In 1952, Scottish artist Ian Fairweather left Darwin on jalajang (the dry south-easterly wind) on a handmade raft. The journey, ending in shipwreck on Indonesia’s Rote Island, inspired New Zealand artist Michael Stevenson to create The gift (from Argonauts of the Timor Sea) 2004–06, a ‘replica’ of the Fairweather’s raft. Stevenson’s raft is a touchstone for many encounters, resonating with Australia’s complex, and continuing history of those who have arrived on and departed from its shores.
