Trepanging

Trepanging is the act of collection or harvesting of sea cucumbers, known in Indonesian, as "trepang". The collector, or fisher, of trepang is a trepanger.

Trepanging is comparable to clamming, crabbing, lobstering, musseling, shrimping and other forms of "fishing" whose goal is acquisition of edible invertebrates rather than finfish.

History

To supply the markets of Southern China, Muslim Makassar Indonesia trepangers traded with Indigenous Australians of Arnhem Land from at least the 18th century or likely prior. This Macassan contact with Australia is the first recorded example of interaction between the inhabitants of the Australian continent and their Asian neighbours.

This contact had a major impact on the Indigenous Australians. The Makassar exchanged goods such as cloth, tobacco, knives, rice and alcohol for the right to trepang coastal waters and employ local labour. Makassar pidgin became a lingua franca along the north coast among different Indigenous Australian groups who were brought into greater contact with each other by the seafaring Macassan culture.