Prevailing Gales Art Project – Colliding Cultures in an Australia–Japan First Contact Story

Online presentation by Tasmanian-born artist Sue Pedley

Prevailing Gales approaches the themes of colliding cultural worlds from the perspective of an extraordinary historical event that took place in 1830. The colonial brig Cyprus voyaged from Recherche Bay, Van Diemen’s Land (lutruwita/Tasmania) under pirate control and with ten escaped convicts. It reached Japanese waters and was repulsed by samurai from Teba Jima island, Awa Domain (Tokushima). At the time Japan had been closed to outside contact for over two centuries. Makita Hamaguchi, a local samurai, wrote the first account of the episode, illustrated with watercolour and indigo dye. 

Pedley’s research is based on the Edo period manuscripts, one of which she viewed at the Tokushima Archive during a residency on Teba Jima in 2024. She is indebted to Nick Russell, an historian living in Japan. The manuscripts are a unique record of how the Japanese samurai encountered the perceived barbarians on board the ship as they encroached on Japan’s closed borders. 

Pedley has been working with the materials of the original manuscripts: mulberry paper, black ink, indigo dye, water-colour, making works on paper which become the basis for generating images with which to respond to the narrative. She looks at elements such as water, wind, time and mapping.

Prevailing Gales builds on previous work addressing the settler and maritime history of her family in Tasmania; the environmental degradation of water and its impact on communities and the natural world; and historical links between Tasmania and Japan. The work was exhibited at the Teba Jima Art Festival in March, 2025 and will be exhibited at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania in December, 2025.

Register for the online presentation with AJS NSW here.

This project is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.