Torres Strait Islanders


Torres Strait Islanders are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped with them as Indigenous Australians. Today, many more Torres Strait Islander people live in mainland Australia than on the islands.
Five distinct peoples exist within the broader designation of Torres Strait Islander people, based partly on geographical and cultural divisions. Kalaw Lagaw Ya and Meriam Mir comprise the two main Indigenous language groups; Yumplatok is also widely spoken as a language of trade and commerce. The core of Island culture is Papuan, and the people are traditionally a seafaring nation. Torres Strait Islanders exhibit a strong artistic culture, particularly in sculpture, printmaking, and mask-making.

Demographics

Of the 133 islands, only 38 are inhabited. The islands are culturally unique, with much to distinguish them from neighbouring Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands. Today the islands are multicultural, having attracted Asian and Pacific Island traders to the beche-de-mer, mother-of-pearl and trochus-shell industries over the years.
The 2021 Australian census counted 4,124 people living on the islands, of whom 86.7% were Torres Strait Islander or Aboriginal Australian people.. In 2006, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had reported 6,800 Torres Strait Islanders living in the Torres Strait area.
People who identified themselves as being of Torres Strait Islander descent in Australia as a whole in the 2021 census accounted for 4.2% of those who identified themselves as being of Indigenous origin, while those with both Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal ancestry made up a further 4.4%.
Five communities of Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal Australians live on the coast of mainland Queensland, mainly at Bamaga, Seisia, Injinoo, Umagico and New Mapoon in the Northern Peninsula area of Cape York.
In June 1875, a measles epidemic killed about 25% of the population, with some islands suffering losses of up to 80% of their people, as the islanders had no natural immunity to European diseases.

Administration

Until the late 20th century, Torres Strait Islanders had been administered by a system of elected councils, a system based partly on traditional pre-Christian local government and partly on the introduced mission management system.
Today, the Torres Strait Regional Authority, an Australian government body established in 1994 and consisting of 20 elected representatives, oversees the islands, with its primary function being to strengthen the economic, social and cultural development of the peoples of the Torres Strait area.
Further to the TSRA, there are several Queensland LGAs which administer areas occupied by Torres Strait Islander communities:
Torres Strait Islander people are of predominantly Melanesian descent, distinct from Aboriginal Australians on the mainland and some other Australian islands, and share some genetic and cultural traits with the people of New Guinea.
The five-pointed star on the national flag represents the five cultural groups. Another source says that it originally represented the five groups of islands, but today it represents the five major political divisions.
Pre-colonial Island people were not a homogeneous group and until then did not regard themselves as a single people. They have links with the people of Papua New Guinea, several islands being much closer to PNG than Australia, as well as the northern tip of Cape York on the Australian continent.
Sources are generally agreed that there are five distinct geographical and/or cultural divisions, but descriptions and naming of the groups differ widely.
  • Encyclopaedia Britannica: the Eastern, Top Western, Near Western, Central, and Inner Islands.
  • Multicultural Queensland 2001 : five groups may be distinguished, based on linguistic and cultural differences, and also related to their places of origin, type of area of settlement, and long-standing relationships with other peoples. these nations are: Saibailgal, Maluilgal, Kaurareg, Kulkalgal and Meriam Le.
  • Torres Shire Council official website : Five major island clusters – the Top Western Group, the Near Western Group, the Central Group, the Eastern Group, and the TI Group.
Ethno-linguistic groups include:
  • Badu people, based on the central-west Badu island
  • Kaurareg, lower Western Islanders, based on the Muralag group.
  • Mabuiag people, across a number of the islands.
  • Meriam people, who living on a number of inner eastern islands, including Murray Island and Tabar Island.

    Languages

There are two distinct Indigenous languages spoken on the Islands, as well as a creole language.
The Western-central Torres Strait Language, or Kalaw Lagaw Ya, is spoken on the southwestern, western, northern and central islands; a further dialect, Kala Kawa Ya may be distinguished. It is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages of Australia.
Meriam Mir is spoken on the eastern islands. It is one of the four Eastern Trans-Fly languages, the other three being spoken in Papua New Guinea.
Torres Strait Creole, an English-based creole language, is also spoken.

Culture

Archaeological, linguistic and folk history evidence suggests that the core of Island culture is Papuo-Austronesian. The people have long been agriculturalists as well as engaging in hunting and gathering. Dugong, turtles, crayfish, crabs, shellfish, reef fish and wild fruits and vegetables were traditionally hunted and collected and remain an important part of their subsistence lifestyle. Traditional foods play an important role in ceremonies and celebrations even when they do not live on the islands. Dugong and turtle hunting as well as fishing are seen as a way of continuing the Islander tradition of being closely associated with the sea. The islands have long history of trade and interactions with explorers from other parts of the globe, both east and west, which has influenced their lifestyle and culture.
The Indigenous people of the Torres Strait have a distinct culture which has slight variants on the different islands where they live. Cultural practices share similarities with Australian Aboriginal and Papuan culture. Historically, they have an oral tradition, with stories handed down and communicated through song, dance and ceremonial performance. As a seafaring people, sea, sky and land feature strongly in their stories and art.

Post-colonisation

Post-colonisation history has seen new cultural influences on the people, most notably the place of Christianity. After the "Coming of Light", artefacts previously important to their ceremonies lost their relevance, instead replaced by crucifixes and other symbols of Christianity. In some cases the missionaries prohibited the use of traditional sacred objects, and eventually production ceased. Missionaries, anthropologists and museums "collected" a huge amount of material: all of the pieces collected by missionary Samuel McFarlane, were in London and then split between three European museums and a number of mainland Australian museums.
In 1898–1899, British anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon collected about 2,000 objects, convinced that hundreds of art objects collected had to be saved from destruction by the zealous Christian missionaries intent on obliterating the religious traditions and ceremonies of the native islanders. Film footage of ceremonial dances was also collected. The collection at Cambridge University is known as the Haddon Collection and is the most comprehensive collection of Torres Strait Islander artefacts in the world.
During the first half of the 20th century, Torres Strait Islander culture was largely restricted to dance and song, weaving and producing a few items for particular festive occasions. In the 1960s and 1970s, researchers trying to salvage what was left of traditional knowledge from surviving elders influenced the revival of interest in the old ways of life. An Australian historian, Margaret Lawrie, employed by the Queensland State Library, spent much time travelling the Islands, speaking to local people and recording their stories, which have since influenced visual art on the Islands.

Art

Mythology and culture, deeply influenced by the ocean and the natural life around the islands, have always informed traditional artforms. Featured strongly are turtles, fish, dugongs, sharks, seabirds and saltwater crocodiles, which are considered totemic beings.
Torres Strait Islander people are the only culture in the world to make turtleshell masks, known as krar in the Western Islands and le-op in the Eastern Islands.
Prominent among the artforms is wame, many different string figures.
Elaborate headdresses or dhari, as featured on the Torres Strait Islander flag, are created for the purposes of ceremonial dances.
The Islands have a long tradition of woodcarving, creating masks and drums, and carving decorative features on these and other items for ceremonial use. From the 1970s, young artists were beginning their studies at around the same time that a significant re-connection to traditional myths and legends was happening. Margaret Lawrie's publications, Myths and Legends of the Torres Strait and Tales from the Torres Strait, reviving stories which had all but been forgotten, influenced the artists greatly. While some of these stories had been written down by Haddon after his 1898 expedition to the Torres Strait, many had subsequently fallen out of use or been forgotten.In the 1990s a group of younger artists, including the award-winning Dennis Nona, started translating these skills into the more portable forms of printmaking, linocut and etching, as well as larger scale bronze sculptures. Other outstanding artists include Billy Missi, known for his decorated black and white linocuts of the local vegetation and eco-systems, and Alick Tipoti. These and other Torres Strait artists have greatly expanded the forms of Indigenous art within Australia, bringing Melanesian carving skills as well as new stories and subject matter. The College of Technical and Further Education on Thursday Island was a starting point for young Islanders to pursue studies in art. Many went on to further art studies, especially in printmaking, initially in Cairns, Queensland and later at the Australian National University in what is now the School of Art and Design. Other artists such as Laurie Nona, Brian Robinson, David Bosun, Glen Mackie, Joemen Nona, Daniel O'Shane and Tommy Pau are known for their printmaking work.
An exhibition of Alick Tipoti's work, titled Zugubal, was mounted at the Cairns Regional Gallery in July 2015.