In 2024, Cairns Art Gallery staged Tommy Pau’s first solo exhibition, entitled Ilan Oman.

This exhibition forms part of the Cairns Art Gallery online First Nations Research Archive developed as part of the Gallery’s online Legacy Archive produced to celebrate the Gallery’s 30th anniversary.

Pau is of the Samsep tribe of Erub in the Torres Strait. He is a printmaker, painter, educator and home tailor with an interest in fashion and textiles. Pau’s bloodline stems from cultural heritages that include the Meriam of Erub, Australian Aboriginal, Papua New Guinean, Pacific Islander and Chinese. Torres Strait cultural practices and values were instilled in him from an early age through his father, Ettie Pau OAM, as well as other members of his family and the community.

Pau has an unwavering commitment to keeping old traditions alive and believes culture must remain true to the past, while also adapting to the current social climate for it to exist into the future. Ilan Oman explored themes of ilan pasin – island way – how life was, and still is, practised in the Torres Strait, particularly through the matriarchal line. On an island surrounded by water, law and order were essential for mutual relationships and co-existence, and Torres Strait women held a dominant space within society’s hierarchical structure.

Tommy Pau was awarded a Cairns RSL Club Artist Fellowship to create new works for the exhibition, including new linocuts highlighting the female tradition of body adornment with Kowsadh sol, blooming flower textiles that were fashioned into Au Gem Wali or big body clothes. This theme intertwined with domestic settings, oral narratives, historical events and practices that are traditional in nature but contemporary in their execution.

Pau’s monochromatic and hand-coloured vinyl cuts are exquisitely carved and reference traditional myths and legends, as well as the artist’s personal anecdotes and experiences. Through these works Pau retells and reframes Torres Strait Islander culture from the points of view of his grandmother, mother, aunties, sisters, and in-laws.

Four prints from the The Blooming flowers series were purchased from the exhibition for the Gallery Collection.