Mer Island
Torres Strait Islanders are of Melanesian origin, proud of their own distinct cultural identity, traditions, languages and history. Like most island and coastal dwellers the Islanders are true seafarers, navigating by the stars with a superb knowledge of islands and reefs, weather, tides and currents.
The size of communities varies according to the ability of the islands to sustain groups of people. Communities could be as small as twenty and as large as 800 people. Island society is life based on farming (where soil was fertile), hunting, fishing and gathering food from the sea.
Three languages are spoken amongst the Islanders: Kala Kawa Ya (Top Western and Western), Kala Lagau Ya (Central) and Meriam (Eastern) dominate, with Torres Strait Islander Kriol (creole, adapted from and similar to PNG Pidgin English) having emerged after the arrival of the missionaries. Torres Strait is named after a Spanish captain, Torres, who sailed through the Strait in 1606 on his way to the Philippines. The Torres Strait Islands became part of Queensland by an Act of Parliament in 1879. Recently, the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) has also been established to represent the interests of the Torres Strait Islanders in the Torres Strait.
The Torres Strait is located between Cape York and Papua New Guinea and is made up of about 100 islands of which 15 are inhabited and administered by Community Councils.
The Torres Strait is divided into five major island clusters, the Top Western Group (Boigu, Dauan and Saibai), the Near Western Group (Badu, Mabuiag and Moa), the Central Group (Yam, Warraber, Coconut and Masig), the Eastern Group (Murray, Darnley and Stephen), and the TI Group (Thursday, Horn, Hammond, Prince of Wales and Friday).
In seagoing canoes they created a network of trade routes between islands and from New Guinea to Cape York Peninsula to ensure supplies of food, weapons, canoes, cassowary feathers, ochre, ceremonial and domestic objects. Torres Strait Islanders traded pearl shell, cone shell, turtle shell and stone.
Archaeological evidence currently indicates that people have lived on Torres Strait islands for at least 2 500 years. However, the sea was at a lower level prior to this, and as the Islanders mostly live near the shore, it is possible that they have lived there for 10 – 12,000 years (Nakata pers.comm.). Today an estimated 3,0000 Torres Strait Islanders live all over Australia, particularly Cairns and Townsville; while about 8,500 live on the Islands. In the 2006 census, 486 people were recorded as living in 96 dwellings. At its most northern point, Saibai Island is 3.73 kilometres from the Papua New Guinea mainland and from the edge of the Torres region to Indonesia is 73.5km making it the only part of Australia to share a border with a neighbouring country.
Although the majority of the Islanders live on the mainland, Torres Strait Islanders are fiercely proud of their identity wherever they live and maintain links with family, home islands, languages and culture. Torres Strait Islanders are predominantly practicing Christians having accepted the teachings of missionaries from the London Missionary Society and blended them with their traditional culture and zogo beliefs. The Coming of the Light festival, held each year, marks the day the London Missionary Society first arrived in Torres Strait. The missionaries landed at Erub Island on 1 July 1871. This is a significant day for Torres Strait Islanders and religious and cultural ceremonies across Torres Strait and mainland Australia are held on this day. Another important festival for Torres Strait Islanders is Tombstone Opening, which is the culmination of a grieving and healing process after the death of a loved one.
Torres Strait was the first place in Australia where native title was recognised through the historic High Court decision on Mer Island in 1992 and this is commemorated each year on Mabo Day, the 3rd June. The name of Eddie Koiki Mabo is synonymous with native title rights. In 1982 along with four fellow Murray Islanders, he instituted a claim in the High Court for native title to the Murray Islands within Torres Strait. The court found that the Meriam people were "entitled as against the whole world to possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of the lands in the Murray Islands." The decision overturned a legal fiction that Australia was Terra Nullius (a land belonging to no-one) at the time of colonization.
Torres Strait Islanders have their own flag, which is emblazoned with a white Dari (headdress), a symbol of Torres Strait Islanders. The white five pointed star beneath it symbolises the five major island groups and the navigational importance of stars to these seafaring people. The green stripes represent the land, the black stripes represent the people, and the blue the sea. The flag as a whole symbolises the unity of all Torres Strait Islanders.
