Edmund Ober
Saibai Island Torres Strait
Suma (Emu) Clan
Warrant Officer Class 2
51 Battalion Far North Queensland Regiment
Australian Army
Medals
Australian Operational Service Medal Border Protection
Defence Long Service Medal
Australian Defence Medal
I am from Saibai Island, but I was born on Thursday Island in 1955. I returned to Thursday Island to finish my schooling, but as there was no work in Saibai, I went to Bamaga in Far North Queensland to work as a labourer. I still live here, Bamaga became home for me and many of my relatives from Saibai Island. Today, I am still working as a carpenter in Bamaga at the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council. When I joined the Army in 1983, I was 28 years old. When I was discharged, 34 years later in 2017, I was 62 years old. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to leave because of my age.
All my uncles and my father were in the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion, the only Indigenous Unit in the Australian Army. I joined, so I could follow in their footsteps. The Army gave me further education and discipline. Through meeting different people, I gained knowledge of other lifestyles and alternative survival techniques. We mixed our cultural skills with Army skills to get good results. One of the tasks I had was to take soldiers out to the bush to do their survival course. One time, I told this group to go to the Mangroves to catch crabs, and they went to the reef instead. They came back to the camp with nothing – only being tired and hungry. I said ‘Look in the campfire – see all the crabs; they are from the Mangroves – took me just a couple of minutes to get them.’ That was a learning curve for them, and they listened to me after that.
I founded the SAYEYE Dance Group for the Army – it is a cultural dance from Saibai. I created the choreography for the Styer Dance, and Warrant Officer Kapua Gutchen Senior wrote the song and music, and Ephraim Bani translated the lyrics into Kala Lagaw Ya, the language of the mid-western Torres Strait. This dance is performed in our Army uniform, a dance holding and firing our Austeyr rifles intermittently. We danced this dance in Canberra to the then Prime Minister, John Howard, in Sydney at the G20 Summit and also for the 26th Governor-General of Australia, Peter Cosgrove, and the new recruits and officers at the Australian Defence Academy. Major Gunder supported our efforts, so we named a drum after him. This way, his voice of support was with us every time we performed. I am very proud of what we have done in protecting our land, sea and culture.