What a ‘forgotten’ Torres Strait Island Paralympian teaches us about representation, achievement and history

Photo: screenshot from the Australian Institute of Sports video.

The full significance of Harry Mosby’s silver-medal win in the men’s discus at the 1976 Paralympic Games in Canada was unrecognised for 45 years: Paralympics Australia thought he was a Western Australian.

In truth, Mosby was a Torres Strait Islander from Masig (Yorke Island), one of around 600 Islander men who worked to support his family on the Australian mainland during “railway time” from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

Until 1965, the Queensland Torres Strait Islander Act controlled resident Islanders’ lives, including their wages and movements.

Mosby, who left the Strait in 1963 and lost both legs in a railway accident in the Pilbara in 1968, was among the first to leave.

Paralympics Australia now recognises Mosby not only as a Torres Strait Islander but also as the first, and only, Paralympian from the Strait.