Billy Missi’n Wakain Thamai

Billy Missi was born on Mabuiag Island in 1970. Informed by a childhood engaged with storytelling, song and dance traditions of the Wagedagam Tribe, Missi's inherited creativity, combined with his passion and experience growing up with living customary practices, prepared him for his journey into art. Missi felt the impulse to create when he first encountered the works of contemporary Torres Strait Islander artists in 1992, but it was not until 1999 that he felt ready to devote himself to artistic pursuits full-time. With only minimal formal training on Moa Island, he rapidly worked his way to the forefront of contemporary Zenadh-Kes (Western Torres Strait) printmaking. Missi skillfully combined traditional carving techniques, iconography and his distinct fish-bone patterns with the contemporary medium of the linocut to forge a new aesthetic and print making movement in the 1990s alongside peers, an aesthetic firmly based on traditional Torres Strait Islander principles. Billy Missi gained international recognition prior to his passing in 2012.