Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, part of Queensland, Australia. They are culturally and genetically linked to Melanesian peoples and those of Papua New Guinea.

They are regarded as being distinct from other Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia, and are generally referred to separately. There are also two Torres Strait Islander communities on the nearby coast of the mainland at Bamaga and Seisia.

Population[link]

Map of Torres Strait Islands

There are 6,000 Torres Strait Islanders who live in the area of the Torres Strait, and 42,000 others who live outside of this area, mostly in the north of Queensland, particularly in Townsville and Cairns.^[1]

Culture[link]

Ritual face mask from a Torres Strait Island (19th century).

The indigenous people of the Torres Strait have a distinct culture which has slight variants on the different islands where they live. They are a sea-faring people, and engaged in trade with people of Papua New Guinea. The culture is complex, with some Australian elements, some Papuan elements, and Austronesian elements, just like the languages. The Islanders seem to have been the dominant culture for many centuries, and neighbouring Aboriginal and Papuan cultures show some Island influence in religious ceremonies and the like. Examples of Torres Strait Islander language can be found on the State Library of Queensland's ReTold website, a collection of online stories gathered in partnership with Torres Strait Islander language speakers and community members living in mainland Queensland. Stories told through this website come from the Margaret Lawrie Collection of Torres Strait Islands material.

Archaeological, linguistic and folk history evidence suggests that the core of Island culture is Austronesian. Unlike the indigenous peoples of mainland Australia, the islanders were traditionally agriculturalists although they supplemented their food supplies through hunting and gathering.^{[citation needed]}

Their more recent, post-colonization history has seen new cultural influences, most notably the place of Christianity (particularly of the Baptist and Anglican strains) which caused major shifts in cultural paradigms, as well as subtler additions through the influence of Polynesian (particularly Rotuman) pearl-divers brought by black-birders in the 19th Century.

Stories, crafts, and games[link]

The inhabitants of Torres Strait have a long history of developing stories, crafts and games. Prominent among these are many different String figures^[2][3][4] (a particular string figure game played by two or more participants that generates several string figures is familiar to people of many cultures under the name Cat's cradle), some extremely elaborate and beautiful, and 'string catches' (games in which strings are wrapped around fingers then removed quickly with a single pull).^[5]

Languages[link]

Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kalau Kawau Ya, Kulkalgau Ya and Kawalgau Ya, which are all dialects of the Western-central Torres Strait Language (Kala Lagaw Ya), are spoken on the southwestern, western, northern and central islands. These are related to Aboriginal languages. Meriam Mir, related to Papuan languages, is spoken on the eastern islands.^[6]

Notable Islanders[link]

Famous Torres Strait Islanders include

• Eddie Mabo
• Christine Anu
• Seaman Dan
• Wendell Sailor - NRL player for St. George Illawarra Dragons
• Sam Thaiday - NRL player for Brisbane Broncos
• Brent Webb - Super League player for Leeds Rhinos and Kiwis fullback
• Robert Lui - NRL player for Wests Tigers
• Patrick Mills - Point guard for Saint Mary's College (California) and the Australia national team (Torres Strait Islander father, Aboriginal mother). Currently playing in the NBA as a point guard for the San Antonio Spurs.
• Danny Morseu - Former basketball player and member of the NBL Hall of Fame
• Nathan Jawai - NBA rookie for Toronto Raptors
• Michael Bani - NRL player for North Queensland Cowboys
• Martin Nakata- First Torres Strait Islander to gain PhD qualifications
• Albert Proud - AFL player for Brisbane Lions^[7]

See also[link]

• Indigenous Australians
• Papua New Guinea
• Torres Strait Islander Flag
• Torres Strait Island languages

References[link]

External links[link]

• Torres Strait Regional Authority
• Church of Torres Strait
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' virtual books - held by the State Library of Queensland.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Social Justice Reports 1994-2009 and Native Title Reports 1994-2009 for more information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.

[ja:トレス海峡諸島民]]

Torres Strait and islands

The Torres Strait seen from space - Cape York Peninsula is at the bottom; several of the Torres Strait Islands can be seen strung out towards Papua New Guinea to the north. (NASA, STS-35)

The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately 150 km (93 mi) 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 Papua New Guinea.

Geography[link]

The strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafura Sea in the west. Although it is an important international sea lane, it is very shallow, 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.

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, ecosystems 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. 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 cays, and those of the east are of volcanic origins. The islands are considered Australian territory and are administered from Thursday Island.

The islands' indigenous inhabitants are the Torres Strait Islanders, Melanesian 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 Meriam 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.

History[link]

The islands of the Torres Strait have been inhabited for at least 2,500 years and possibly much longer.^[1]

The first recorded European navigation of the strait was by Luis Váez de Torres, a Spanish pilot who was second-in-command on the Spanish expedition led by Pedro Fernandez de Quirós who sailed from Peru to the South Pacific in 1605. After Quiros's ship returned to Mexico, Torres resumed the intended voyage to Manila via the Moluccas. He sailed along the south coast of New Guinea, and may also have sighted the northernmost extremity of the Australian mainland, however no specific records exist that indicate he did so.^[2]

In 1769 the Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple, whilst translating some Spanish documents captured in the Philippines in 1762, had found Luis Váez 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 Captain Cook and not him who was appointed commander of the expedition which 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. 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.

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.

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.^[3]

In 1978 an agreement between Australia and Papua New Guinea determined the maritime border in the Torres Strait.^[4]

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 Universities, Alfred Haddon in 1898 and Australia's Margaret Lawrie in 1960 - 1973.

Illegal immigration[link]

Due to the proximity to the Papua New Guinea mainland, the northern Torres Strait islands have been experiencing significant numbers of illegal long-term residents from Papua New Guinea, putting significant strain on scarce local resources such as fresh water. In November 2007 community leaders held emergency talks with Australian immigration officials with a view to having illegal residents returned to Papua New Guinea.^[5][6]

See also[link]

• Birds of Boigu, Saibai and Dauan Islands (Torres Strait)
• Torres Strait Islands

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Torres Strait

Notes[link]

References[link]

Singe, John. (2003). My Island Home: A Torres Strait Memoir. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0-7022-3305-6

Coordinates: 9°50′S 142°30′E / 9.833°S 142.5°E / -9.833; 142.5