Erub Arts: Turning Ghost Nets Into World-Renowned Torres Strait Art

Founded in 2009 on Erub (Darnley Island), home to around 400 Erubam Le people, Erub Arts began working with washed-up 'ghost nets' in 2010, turning discarded fishing gear into large-scale woven sculptures of sharks, turtles, frigate birds, and coral reefs. Between 2004 and 2014, over 14,000 ghost nets, representing 80% of the region's marine debris, were removed from Erub's shores, much of it repurposed by the art centre's Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. The centre's ghost-net works have toured to the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, and museums in Singapore and Germany, building global awareness of ocean plastic while creating income and cultural continuity for the island's artists.