Torres Strait The map created by people like you! Torres Strait World / Papua New Guinea / Fly River / Daru World / Australia / Queensland water, strait / channel / passage / narrows, invisible The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately 150 km wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland. To the north is the Western Province of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. Torres Strait Name honours Luis Vaez de Torres who unknowlngly sailed throgh the strait in September 1606, six months after the Dutch vessel Duyfken sailed these waters. It came from the west but failed to find a passage through, and followed the eastern coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria south instead.

Nearby cities: Kota Merauke, Port Moresby, Lae Coordinates: 9°57'20"S 143°4'19"E Torres Strait Explained Torres Strait Torres Strait Explained The Torres Strait is a strait which lies between Australia and the Melanesia n island of New Guinea . It is approximately 150km (90miles) wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula , the northernmost continental extremity of the Australia n state of Queensland . To the north is the Western Province of Papua New Guinea . It is named after navigator Luís Vaz de Torres , who passed through the Strait in 1606. Geography The strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria in the west. Although it is an important international sea lane, it is very shallow (7 to 15 m water depth), [1] and the maze of reefs and islands can make it hazardous to navigate. In the south the Endeavour Strait is located between Prince of Wales Island (Muralug) and the mainland.

Shipping enters Torres Strait via the Adolphus Channel which joins to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon to the southeast. Strong tidal currents occur in the narrow channels between islands and reefs, and large submarine sand dunes migrate across the seafloor. [2] Some 580 coral reefs, including the Warrior Reefs and Eastern Patch Reefs, cover a total area of 2,400 km2 in the region, as well as some of the most extensive seagrass beds in the world. [3] Several clusters of islands lie in the Strait, collectively called the Torres Strait Islands . There are at least 274 of these islands, of which 17 have present-day permanent settlements. Over 6,800 Torres Strait Islanders live on the Islands and 42,000 live on the mainland. These islands have a variety of topographies , ecosystem s and formation history. Several of those closest to the New Guinea coastline are low-lying, formed by alluvial sedimentary deposits borne by the outflow of the local rivers into the sea.

[4] Many of the western islands are hilly and steep, formed mainly of granite , and are peaks of the northernmost extension of the Great Dividing Range now turned into islands when sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age . The central islands are predominantly coral cay s, and those of the east are of volcanic origins. The islands are considered Australian territory and are administered from Thursday Island . There are several major policy and institutional frameworks in the Torres Strait region that support the sustainable use and management of marine resources while also protecting habitats, biodiversity and the traditional islander way of life. Most important of these is the Torres Strait Treaty entered into by Australia and Papua New Guinea in February 1985. The Treaty defines sovereignty and maritime boundaries in the area between the two countries. It guides decision makers on protecting the way of life and livelihood of traditional inhabitants, on managing the protection of habitats, and on sharing the commercial and traditional fisheries resources. The Treaty established a Torres Strait Protected Zone within which both nations manage access to fisheries resources. Each country exercises sovereign jurisdiction for resources on either side of the agreed jurisdiction lines.

The islands' indigenous inhabitants are the Torres Strait Islander s, Melanesia n peoples related to the Papuans of adjoining New Guinea. The various Torres Strait Islander communities have a distinct culture and long-standing history with the islands and nearby coastlines. Their maritime-based trade and interactions with the Papuans to the north and the Australian Aboriginal communities have maintained a steady cultural diffusion between the three societal groups, dating back thousands of years at least. Two indigenous languages are spoken on the Torres Strait Islands: Kala Lagaw Ya /Kalaw Kawaw Ya/Kawalgau Ya/Muwalgau Ya/Kulkalgau Ya, and Miriam Mir, as well as Brokan [Broken], otherwise called Torres Strait Creole . In the 2001 Australian national census, the population of the islands was recorded as 8,089, though many more live outside of Torres Strait in Australia. Environmental issues facing the region include the risk of mining waste from the Fly River in southern Papua New Guinea, the impacts of global climate change and the sustainable management of natural resources. [5] History The islands of the Torres Strait have been inhabited for at least 2,500 years and possibly much longer.

[6] The first recorded European navigation of the strait was by Luís Vaz de Torres , a pilot who was second-in-command on the Spanish expedition led by navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós who sailed from Peru to the South Pacific in 1605. After Queirós's ship returned to Mexico , Torres resumed the intended voyage to Manila via the Maluku Islands . He sailed along the south coast of New Guinea, and may also have sighted the northernmost extremity of the Australia n mainland, however no specific records exist that indicate he did so. [7] In 1769 the Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple , whilst translating some Spanish documents captured in the Philippines in 1762, had found Luís Vaz de Torres' testimony proving a passage south of New Guinea now known as Torres Strait. This discovery led Dalrymple to publish the Historical Collection of the Several Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean in 1770–1771, which aroused widespread interest in his claim of the existence of an unknown continent. It was Dalrymple who named the strait after Torres.

Dalrymple was bitterly disappointed that it was James Cook and not he who was appointed commander of the expedition that eventually led in 1770 to the British encounter and charting of the eastern coastline of Australia. In 1770 Cook claimed the whole of eastern Australia for the British Crown, and sailed through the strait after proceeding up the eastern coast of the continent. In 1823 Lieutenant John Lihou, then Master of HMS Zenobia , was on passage from Manila to South America and chose a route through Torres Strait. This was the first occasion a ship was navigated through Torres Strait from west to east. It was also the first occasion a ship was navigated through the Coral Sea from Torres Strait, south-eastward to the southward of New Caledonia . Lihou saw Sir James Saumarez' Shoal (now Saumarez Reefs ) on 27 February and named the reef system after Vice-Admiral James Saumarez . On this same trip, Lihou discovered the Lihou Reef and Cays and Port Lihou. The London Missionary Society arrived on Erub (Darnley Island) in 1871.

Although some of the Torres Strait islands lie just off the coast of New Guinea , they were annexed in 1879 by Queensland , then a British colony. There was an important pearling industry from the 1860s until about 1970 when it collapsed in the face of competition from the plastics industry. Pearl-shelling was responsible for the arrival of experienced divers from many countries, notably Japan . [8] In 1978 an agreement between Australia and Papua New Guinea determined the maritime border in the Torres Strait. [9] Torres Strait is mentioned in Jules Verne 's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea as a dangerous strait where the submarine, the Nautilus , is briefly stranded. The people of the Torres Strait have a unique indigenous culture, which has been the centre for anthropological work completed by Cambridge University's Alfred Haddon in 1898 and Australia's Margaret Lawrie from 1960 to 1973. Asylum seekers Due to proximity to the Papua New Guinea mainland, the northern Torres Strait islands experience occasional asylum seeker arrivals from across the Strait.

A total of ten asylum seekers from Papua New Guinea were detected in each of 2012 and 2013. [10] See also Singe, John. (2003). My Island Home: A Torres Strait Memoir. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0-7022-3305-6. External links -9.83333333333333°N 172°W Notes and References Harris, P.T., 1988. Sediments, bedforms and bedload transport pathways on the continental shelf adjacent to Torres Strait, Australia - Papua New Guinea. Continental Shelf Research 8, 979-1003 Hemer, M.A., Harris, P.T., Coleman, R., Hunter, J., 2004. Sediment mobility due to currents and waves in the Torres Strait - Gulf of Papua region. Continental Shelf Research 24, 2297-2316 Coles, R.G., McKenzie, L.J. and Campbell, S.J. (2003).

The seagrasses of eastern Australia In: Green EP; Short FT; and Spalding MD. (eds) The World Atlas of Seagrasses Harris, P.T., 1995. Muddy waters: the physical sedimentology of Torres Strait, in: Bellwood, O., Choat, H., Saxena, N. (Eds.), Recent Advances in Marine Science and Technology '94. James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, Qld., pp. 149-160 Harris, P.T., Butler, A.J., Coles, R.G., 2008. Marine resources, biophysical processes, and environmental management of a tropical shelf seaway: Torres Strait, Australia – Introduction to the Special Issue. Continental Shelf Research 28, 2113-2116 Charting the Pacific - Places (Chairman of the Torres Strait Regional Authority: Terry Waia) Australian dollar Government The Torres Strait Islands are part of the Australian state of Queensland. The administrative centre for the territory is based on Thursday Island where are regrouped 15 Queensland Government and 14 Commonwealth Government Departments.

At the local level, each island community elects its own council which meets monthly to run the domestic affairs of the island. These councils have very wide powers. Councillors are elected for a three year term. The chairperson of each council is a member of the Island Coordinating Council which meets to discuss regional issues. In 1994, in response to local demands for greater autonomy, the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) was established to allow Torres Strait islanders to manage their own affairs according to their own ailan kastom (island custom) and to develop a stronger economic base for the region. The TSRA is made up of 20 representatives elected by Torres Strait Islanders living in the islands. The Torres Strait Islands Treaty signed by Australia and Papua New Guinea allows for free movement (without passports or visas) between Australia and Papua New Guinea for traditional activities in a limited zone of the Torres Strait. Resources Most of the islands' economy is based around traditional activities such as fishing and private gardens. The pearl culture industry which started in the 1960s collapsed in 1970 after a disease attacked the shells. Tourism is limited by a lack of facilities.

Fishing is the main economic activity, particularly fishing for prawns, rock lobsters and Spanish mackerel. Since its creation in 1994, the TSRA has provided financial assistance to many local businesses in the Torres Strait Region. History The first inhabitants of the Torres Strait are believed to have migrated from the Indonesian archipelago 70,000 years ago at a time when New Guinea was still attached to the Australian continent. They were followed by new waves of migration. The original inhabitants lived in small communities relying on fishing, hunting and the growing of crops for their subsistence. Trade in artifacts made of pearl shell, turtle shell, feathers, canoes and tools was very important in the life of Torres Strait Islanders. Although it is likely that Chinese, Malay and Indonesian traders had explored the islands before him, the first navigator credited with coming across the islands is the Spaniard Luis Vaez de Torres who sailed through the strait in 1606. The discovery of pearl shell in the 1860s led to an influx of people from all over the region (Japanese, Malays, Filipinos, Micronesians and Europeans) especially on Thursday Island (Wyben) which became the main settlement.

By 1877, 16 firms were established on Thursday Island employing 700 people and more than a hundred pearl luggers. Although the pearl trade stopped after World War II, cultured pearl farms still operate in the Torres Strait today. Queensland officially annexed the islands in 1879. The Torres Strait islanders became citizens of Queensland in 1967 with full access to health and social services and freedom to travel and work in Australia. Many thousands of Islanders live in Queensland today, where they form a strong community. In June 1992, the High Court of Australia recognised the native title rights of Eddie Mabo, an inhabitant of Murray Island (Mer), over his traditional land. The High Court overturned the previous concept of terra nullius which stated that in legal terms Australia was empty of inhabitants when it was first settled by Europeans. Since the Mabo decision, several communities (Saibai Islanders and Mualgal people from Moa Island) have secured legal recognition of their native title rights over their islands. Several other cases are also in progress.

Main Issues planned building of a A$2 billion gas pipeline from Kutubu in Papua New Guinea across the Torres Strait to Queensland land and water rights drug and people smuggling from Papua New Guinea recurring claims for more autonomy Links Australian islands | australia.gov.au Australian islands Australian islands World Heritage-listed Fraser Island. Image courtesy of Geoscience Australia. The continent of Australia is referred to as an island because it is surrounded by ocean. However, Australia is actually made up of more than 8,000 islands, including the island state of Tasmania. As an island, Australia is a natural quarantine zone. This means we are able to keep out many of the pests and diseases, such as rabies and papaya fly, that ravage other parts of the world. It also means we have some of the most unique animals and plants in the world. Many of our islands feature animals and wildlife that are unique to the islands due to their isolation from threats. Norfolk Island Norfolk Island is located far off the east coast of Australia. It is 1610 kilometres ENE of Sydney and 1456 km ESE of Brisbane. The Island is a volcanic outcrop 8km long and 5km wide.

Norfolk Island is the site of one of the earliest European settlements in the Southwest Pacific. In March 1788, just after the colony of New South Wales was established, Lieutenant Philip Gidley King and 22 settlers (including nine male and six female convicts) landed at what is now Kingston, Norfolk Island. In 1806, the government of the time decided the island was too difficult and costly to maintain. The inhabitants were transferred to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and all buildings were destroyed to discourage unauthorised settlers. A second settlement was established in 1825. This time the island was to be a penal colony for the worst convicts from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. It was officially described as 'a place of the extremist punishment, short of death'. Conditions were harsh and many convicts died from disease, murder and failed escape attempts. Convict labour was used to construct the main buildings on the island, which remain standing to this day. In 1855, the island was abandoned as a penal colony and convicts transferred (again) to Van Diemen's Land. The third settlement was the following year.

One hundred and ninety-four men, women and children made the 3,700 mile, five week journey from Pitcairn Island to Norfolk Island. Almost all of them were descendants of the Bounty mutineers, the British naval officers involved in the1789 mutiny against Captain William Bligh. Today, Norfolk Island is home to 1,800 permanent residents. Thirty-five per cent are descendants of the Bounty mutineers. Due to the number of shared surnames, many of the descendents are listed in the local telephone book by their nicknames for identification purposes - Lettuce Leaf, Spuddy, Bubby, Diddles and Loppy to name just a few. Torres Strait Islands A Thursday Island Torres Strait dancer. Image courtesy of State Library of Queensland. The Torres Strait separates the land masses of Australia and New Guinea. Torres Strait Islanders are of the Melanesian grouping of people and are traditionally mariners. They have a long history of trade with both Aboriginal and New Guinean people. The islands are named after the Spaniard Luiz Vez de Torres who sailed through in 1606.

After Australia was colonised by England, the Torres Strait became a sea route for ships travelling between Australia and Britain. This enabled the islanders to extend their trade partners, but also meant European rule, culture and religion were imposed. In the 1860s, the discovery of pearl shell and trepang (sea cucumber), a delicacy appreciated by the Chinese, brought people from all over the region to the Torres Strait. By 1877, 16 pearling firms were operating on Thursday Island. The colony of Queensland recognised the value of this resource, and annexed the islands in 1879. The influx of settlers severely restricted the ability of the islanders to continue their traditional lives and travels. It wasn't until 1936 that islanders took charge of local government. In 1990 they were officially recognised as a distinct people. In June 1992, the High Court of Australia overturned the previous concept of terra nullius which stated that, in legal terms, Australia was empty of inhabitants when it was first settled by Europeans. On this day the High Court recognised the native title rights of Eddie Mabo over his traditional land on Murray Island (Mer).

Several other communities (Saibai Islanders and Mualgal people from Moa Island) have gained native title rights over their islands since the Mabo decision. The Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) was established in 1994 to allow Torres Strait islanders to manage their own affairs according to their own ailan kastom (island custom). Macquarie Island Macquarie Island. Image courtesy of Geoscience Australia. Macquarie Island lies 1,500 kilometres south-east of Tasmania in the Southern Ocean. The island is the exposed crest of the enormous Macquarie Ridge and is the only place on earth where rocks from the earth's mantle (6 kilometres below the ocean floor) are being actively exposed above sea level. In 1996, the Australian government nominated Macquarie Island for World Heritage listing based on its unique geological features. The island was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1997. For more than 50 years, the northern part of the island has been the base for a research and Antarctic Support Station. Built in 1948, the station hosts more than 40 people over the summer and about 20 people during winter.

Queensland Islands Some of Australia's best-known islands are in Queensland. With the Great Barrier Reef following the coast from north to south, these tropical islands comprise the holiday playground of Australia. Just an hour's drive from the Queensland capital, Brisbane, is Bribie Island. Linked to the mainland by a bridge, the sandy beaches and national parks of Bribie have become a family holiday destination. Fraser Island, which is more than 1,600 square kilometres in size, is the world's largest sand island. In December 1992, Fraser Island attained World Heritage listing in recognition of its amazing geography. With complex sand dune systems, a rainforest on sand and crystal clear freshwater lakes, the island is a haven for wildlife and flora. And because of its geographical isolation, the island contains the purest strain of dingo in Australia. Fraser Island was also placed on the National Heritage List in 2007. The holiday islands Queensland is best known for are further north. The Whitsundays, a group of more than 70 islands midway along the Queensland coast, are a favourite holiday destination for Australians and international visitors. Other popular islands include Great Keppel Island, Lizard Island and Magnetic Island.

West Australian islands Quokkas at Rottnest Island. Image courtesy of The Rottnest Island Authority. Like Queensland, the West Australian coast boasts hundreds of islands and island groups. To the south is a group of more than 100 islands, including Woody Island, which are home to fur seals, penguins and many water birds. These lie within the Archipelago of the Recherche, commonly known as the Esperance Bay of Isles. Off the central west coast are the more than 100 tiny islands that make up the Houtman Abrolhos Islands. The most significant feature of these islands is the Acropora coral which surrounds the islands and which has been the cause of many shipwrecks, including the Batavia (1629) and Zeewijk (1727). Further north are the Montebello Islands. Named by the French explorer Baudin, this island group is comprised of more than 100 limestone islands of varying sizes and is very popular for game fishing. The most famous of all West Australian islands, Rottnest Island, can be found just off the coast from the capital city, Perth.

Rottnest Island was discovered in 1696 by Willem de Vlamingh, a Dutch explorer, who named the island Rat's Nest due to the many large rats that he believed inhabited the island. These 'rats' are actually quokkas (PDF 82 KB) and are one of the main attractions of the island. Rottnest Island was originally used by settlers as a prison and during World War II it was a large military stronghold. Today, the island is both a tourist destination and a weekend escape for locals. Cars are banned from the island (with a few exceptions) and most people use bikes. Cocos Islands The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are located 2,800 kilometres north-west of Perth in the Indian Ocean. The group, which consists of 27 coral islands, became an Australian Territory in 1955. The first permanent settlement on the islands was in 1826, with a second settlement the following year. This second settlement was led by Captain Clunies-Ross, who was keen to use the island's coconut supplies to produce coconut husks and oil.

In 1886, Queen Victoria granted all land on the islands to George Clunies-Ross (the third descendant of Captain Clunies-Ross) and his heirs for eternity. The islands served as a communications and transport link during both World Wars. They were attacked by the German cruiser Emden in World War I and the Japanese during World War II. In 1978 the Australian government purchased from Mr John Cecil Clunies-Ross the remainder of his property on the islands with the exception of his house on Home Island (which was purchased by the government in 1993). Useful links Mask (Buk, Krar, or Kara) | Torres Strait Islander | The Met Mask (Buk, Krar, or Kara) Date: mid to late 19th century Geography: Australia, Mabuiag Island, Queensland, Torres Strait Culture: Turtle shell, wood, cassowary feathers, fiber, resin, shell, paint Dimensions: H. 21 1/2 x W. 25 x D. 22 3/4 in. (54.6 x 63.5 x 57.8 cm) Classification: The Michael C.

Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1967 Accession Number: 1978.412.1510 On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 354 Intricate masks and figures made from plates of turtle-shell are unique to the peoples of the Torres Strait, which lies between Australia and New Guinea. Turtle-shell effigies were first recorded on the Torres Strait islands by the Spanish explorer Diego de Prado in 1606, a testimony to the antiquity of the tradition. Used primarily during male initiation and at funerary rituals, the masks represent mythical culture heroes and their associated totemic species. Some masks represent human forms, others depict birds, fish, or reptiles, and masks such as this one combine the features of both humans and animals. Provenance Augustus Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers, Farnham, Dorset, U.K.; [K. John Hewett, London, until 1967]; The Museum of Primitive Art, 1967–1978 References Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art.

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, 206. Pelrine, Diane. Affinities of Form: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection. Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1996. Kjellgren, Eric. Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, 83, 134-7. Kjellgren, Eric. "The Pacific Resurfaces: New Galleries for Oceanic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Tribal Art (Winter 2007–2008), p. 98. Kjellgren, Eric. How to Read Oceanic Art. How to Read 3. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014, pp. 58–61.

Timeline of Art History (2000-present) Timelines Torres Strait: Cultural Identity and the Sea | Cultural Survival Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine Torres Strait: Cultural Identity and the Sea For the people of Mabuiag, the westernmost island in Torres Strait, heaven is not straight up; it lies on Kibu, an island to the northwest. When Islander die, their spirits sail to Kibu at sundown with the prevailing winds. The local Anglican Father regularly visits the ancestors in this mythical sea space. Belief in a marine afterworld is Melanesian custom. In Torres Strait, personal and cultural identity are as dependent on the sea as the local marine hunting and fishing economy and rhythm of daily events. Like some of their Aborigine neighbors to the south on Cape York and the coastal Papuans to the north, islanders do not regard land and sea as separate spheres, or define the sea strictly in terms of fisheries or potential purely economic resources. By contrast, Western maritime idioms are devoted almost exclusively to the realms of law, politics, and economics. Material values and categories scarcely begin to convey the totality of Islanders' relationship to their "home seas." A Sense of Place Mabuiag waters conceal a non-European history.

As "Island time" overtakes the visitor, a temporal sense of history recedes. For Islanders, "where's something happened is more important than "when" it happened. What first appear to be undifferentiated patches of coral and salt water are Islanders' exclusive marine domains - a vast, intricate water library where history dwells in places, not in time, and all the sea is named. Islands, reefs, channels and the resources they contain belong to Badu and Mabuiag people because mythical ancestors like Sesere, Zigin, and Wad caught turtles, dugong, or fish there. These things belong to a time of unwritten language not taught in any textbook. Nearly all folk tales start with this special sense of place. Islander history survives through the continuous occupation and use of islands and reefs and the crisscrossing of home seas. Torres Strait occupies a strategic position in the annals of maritime history and exploration.

Members of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Strait in 1898 were impressed by Islanders' profound knowledge of local natural history and the ways they partitioned and named sea space, which ran counter to European "freedom of the seas" claims and designations of fishing grounds as "common property." As a primary sea lane between the Pacific and Indian oceans, its peoples have long been exposed to outsiders. Traders, pearl shellers, and missionaries had already overrun the area, introducing wage labor, disease, and Christian fellowship. Pearlers had destroyed food supplies and denuded some islands, stolen women and shanghai'd young men as "food for the fisheries." York Islanders in central Torres Strait reputedly buried their women in the sand with only their noses showing whenever foreign vessels were sighted. Some important impressions concerning the status of this sea-based society can be gained by, first, considering Torres Strait's relationship to the government of Queensland, Australia; second, by focusing on demographic patterns and recent economic pressures; and finally, by interpreting the persistence of a burial custom which is an indirect but vital link in Islanders' identification with their marine homelands. Queensland is Australia's "Deep North," with a reputation for racial discrimination.

As Queensland's protectorate, Torres Strait Islanders and their elected leaders are political pawns, captive to the DAIA's (Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement) "company store" mentality. At the DAIA-run store on Mabuiag, for example, residents get credit but no paychecks. They sign a ledger book for their goods. Precious little cash changes hands on the island. The government stocks shelves with soda pop, sweet biscuits, lollies, sugar, flour, and rice. (Torres Strait has one of the highest Type II diabetes rates in the Pacific). Colonial policy has ostensibly sheltered the Islanders from abuses by outsiders ever since Queensland annexed the territory in 1879. This act gave the government control of the east-west shipping passage and facilitated containment of non-whites. After the federation of Australia in 1901, Islanders became subject to "protection," and not until after World War Two could they marry or travel to the mainland without DAIA approval. The twentieth century symbol of iron-hand paternalism is the Torres Strait Islander's Act of 1939.

Though formalizing "indirect rule," it stipulates that Islanders have no traditional homeland or sea rights; rather they are allowed to inhabit the area under the supervision of Protectors (now called Managers). A formal movement to repeal the Act is underway, but even if it is abolished, Islanders will continue to hang in political limbo without any legislation comparable to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1976 to recognize their hereditary rights. Nonetheless, recent Aborigine successes in pressing their land and sea rights claims through the courts offer encouragement to Islanders who have long sought to obtain official titles to their homelands and seas. A major test case is emerging. Since 1982, a group of Murray Islanders in Eastern Torres Strait has spearheaded a campaign in which the High Court of Australia petitioned the Queensland and Commonwealth governments to recognize their territorial rights. The post-war economy and development prospects in the area make it imperative that the government address the question of Islanders' hereditary sea tenure claims which are being increasingly fragmented.

University of California geographer Bernard Nietschmann, in his documentation of Islanders' valuable resource management traditions, identifies a constellation of pressures that threaten Mabuiag waters and subsistence territories, Local pearl shell, beche de mer, trochus shell and hawksbill carapace continue to attract outside markets, but today this list of export items must be expanded to include lucrative stocks of crayfish, prawns, and barramundi, as well as possible oil and natural gas deposits. Crayfishing boats from northern Australia and Taiwanese trawlers frequently venture into Islanders' waters to pirate prawns and other resources. Local turtle and dugong populations are particularly vulnerable to interlopers. Also, diffusion of outboard motors among Islander communities increases the danger of locally-induced overexploitation. Fishing is intensifying as part of the wider dispute over the international sea boundary between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Although the countries signed a treaty in 1978 to settle this conflict, the governments continue to ignore Islander rights to lands and home reefs, slicing them up in new jurisdictional patterns. A "protected zone" is supposed to be renegotiated in 1988 to continue restrictions on deep sea mining and commercial marine exploitation.

A Sense of Place, Once Removed Shifting social organization and demographic changes make it difficult for Islanders to observe and enforce traditional sea rights and boundaries, especially beyond home reefs. A majority of the growing population of 20,000 Islanders reside, not in the Torres Strait, but on the Australian mainland. Strict containment policies relaxed after the war and a surge of wage labor opportunities in Qeensland encouraged Islanders to migrate to Cairns, Townsville, and Brisbane. Children must leave their home island to obtain standard secondary school education. Professional credentials in teaching, nursing, or office management similarly must be obtained on the mainland. Because of Queensland's "bandaid" health care approach in the Torres Strait region, people are forced to leave their home islands to give birth to their children and receive primary health care. Chronic health problems demand permanent relocation to medical centers on the mainland or Thursday Island, the region's administrative center. Traditionally, home island residence is the foundation for group affiliation. Marriage fosters alliances between islands and across generations. Birth on a home island is necessary to establish territorial rights within a clan. In much of the Western Torres Starit, and particularly among the Mabuiag population, formal marriage unions are being replaced with de facto arrangements.

This is due to the high cost of marriage: inflation in bride price, the heavy expense of weddings and the loss of federal social benefits given to unwed mothers. Children of such arrangements do not obtain their father's name or land and sea rights within his clan. Recently the Anglican Church has instituted home island baptism for children born out of wedlock, thus providing an alternative path for affiliating with a community. The Anglican Church, which took over from the London Missionary Society in 1914, plays a key advocacy role in Australia, promoting Islander rights; it is perhaps the integral social force on Mabuiag. Under the Anglicans, and paradoxically, partly as a result of previous missionization to stamp out paganism, Christian weddings, funerals and other festive occasions gradually took on a distinctive Islander style, incorporating beliefs from the mythical past. The cycle of events surrounding death is a major arena for expression of ethnic identity and home island ties. An annual ceremony with sacred dancing to commemorate the dead predates missionary influence. Underlying beliefs are still the basis for a secondary mortuary rite unique to the Torres Strait - the tombstone opening. The ceremony is the culmination of a long period of mourning and preparation by relatives.

The tomb is not actually opened but a newly installed engraved headstone is unveiled. If the spirit of the deceased cannot join other ancestors on the island of Kibu, it may return and cause much mischief among the living. Ghosts can't get through the locked gate of the afterworld without the key - the tombstone ceremony. Today, in-laws dig deep into their pockets to present the deceased's family with an engraved headstone, brought all the way from Brisbane, shrouded in hundreds of yards of colorful cloth and money envelopes. In the words of Sam Passi, and Islander at Queensland University; "Making a tombstone was a new thing we added into our custom. Now we've got to carry on and nobody will stop it. It's become our custom and we're going to treasure it." Tombstone openings communicate a sense of self for contemporary Islanders. The ritual, with its extensive preparations and burdens, also highlights some of the difficulties people face by simultaneously trying to become part of modern Australia and maintaining access to resources and sacred space on their native islands. The ability to carry on traditional burial practices is greatly complicated by recent island depopulation trends. Out-migration makes the quest to establish legal titles to clan estates of freeholdings problematic.

Families can only exercise control over land and sea rights if children have island residences and if relatives can be guaranteed proper secondary mortuary rites. Moreover, the ability of communities to press their case for autonomous home islands as distinct Australian ethnic minorities depends on the power of cultural symbols contained in these ceremonies, along with valid connections to their heritage and earlier inhabitants. Grounding cultural renewal in an appeal to tradition is a strategy Islanders currently share with groups in other parts of the Pacific. Conclusion Can indigenous Torres Strait Islanders still be Islanders on the mainland? How are they to reconcile accommodations to life on the mainland with the pull of the sea, always calling them home? For the Islanders the worst way to die is sarup, to be lost at sea. Europeans pushed them into dying this way. As the pearl shell was used up in shallow waters, divers were forced to go deeper and deeper into places like the Darnley Deep, beyond their home reefs. People still lament this time. The tombstone celebrations could not be properly performed - the spirits of the dead still restlessly wander. It is difficult to isolate the sea from the context of Torres Strait Melanesian culture.

Subsistence, trade networks, political alliances, social ideology, birth and death - all these things flow from it. This inter-connectedness may ultimately prove to be incompatible with the overlay of westernization. Australian courts will never be able to reduce indigenous sea tenure claims to straightforward allocations of fishing rights. As in the tombstone ceremony, Islanders will have to imaginatively refashion tradition in order to maintain it. Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc. CSQ Issue:

Question: The Torres Strait lies between Australia and which island?
Answer: NEW GUINEA