Title: Throwing off the Cloak: Reclaiming self-reliance in Torres Strait
Author: Dr Elizabeth Osborne
Publisher: Aboriginal Studies Press
RRP: $39.95 AUD
Published: 1 November 2009
Format: Paperback 188 pp with references and index
Promoter: Zeitgeist Media Group
Dr Elizabeth Osborne’s first book Torres Strait Islander Women and the Pacific War was published in 1997.
Before annexation by Queensland in the nineteenth century, the Torres Strait Islands were a group of islands on which the people found their identity in the island of their birth and their land was a legacy from their ancestors. The modern history of Torres Strait Island Peoples is a journey through a series of experiences from the mid-19th century that in retrospect can be seen as phases of pan-Islander identity formation.
Torres Strait Islanders have a sea culture that distinguishes them from other Australians. Dr Osborne has based her narrative on the voices of Islander Peoples. This gives the reader access to their outlook on the world.
Their modern history began when the British set up the settlement of Somerset at the tip of Cape York in 1864; in 1871, missionaries came to the strait to Christianise the people; in 1872, Islanders became Australian when the Queensland Government annexed the inner islands of Torres Strait and in 1879, it annexed the remainder. The population of the islands is around 8,000 but around five times that number live on the Australian mainland.
Islanders welcomed the missionaries because they believed they could suppress the deadly violence caused by inter-island feuding and marine industry predators that traversed the islands shanghaiing young men and women to work aboard boats in brutal and squalid conditions.
In 1904, the Queensland Government brought Islanders under the Aboriginals Protection Act of 1897. Consequently, Islanders lost their civil rights and their islands were declared Crown land. By the mid-1930s, the Protector had total control of their lives: he confined them to a 9 pm curfew; they needed a permit to travel between the islands; their mail was censored; and the Protector took control of their boat earnings by issuing a credit note that could only be redeemed at stores on some of the islands. This was a period when the Queensland Government attempted to control the space between black and white to forestall the “half-caste menace”.
In 1936, Islanders withdrew their labour from all boats working in the Strait. The strike lasted four months. They gained better wages and relaxation of the restrictions on their personal liberties.
The war in the Pacific brought Islanders the opportunity to challenge colonial constraints. They returned from the war aware that the freedom they were prepared to fight for should apply to themselves.
In 1975, as Papua New Guinea neared independence from Australia, the Commonwealth proposed that Australia cede nine of the inhabited islands to PNG. In response, Islanders protested vehemently that they were Australian and their identity was based on their autonomy within the strait. The people won their cause with mainland support.
In 1992, two events boosted Islander pan-identity—the High Court of Australia (HCA) declared the people of Murray Island owned their lands in Torres Strait according to their ancestral law; the second happened when islanders raised their flag for the first time.
The flag is adorned with the white dari, the ceremonial headdress; the five pointed star symbolises the island clusters and the importance of the stars to these seafaring people; green represents the land, black the people and blue the sea.
Over 150 years, historical processes set in motion by government, church and the marine industry weakened traditional island divisions and laid the foundation for the emergence of a common Torres Strait identity in culture and worldview.
When the Mabo decision was handed down, Islanders took a step towards the self-reliance they believe is their right. By the end of 2006, the people had gained native title on all the islands of Torres Strait and dozens of islets, atolls and cays.
This has empowered islanders to seek autonomy—self-government territory-style and recognition of their traditional rights to the sea and its resources. The people want to shed the cloak of welfare in return for exclusive fishing rights. This is the base on which Islanders can build an economy.
Elizabeth Osborne says that the “flame of autonomy” in Torres Strait has ranged from blaze to flicker since the 1980s. Nonetheless, there has been no lack of commitment and in time the people will realise their ambition. This is a compelling story about Australia’s second Indigenous Peoples.
Reviewed by Paul Newbury
This entry was posted by pnewbury on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Book Reviews.
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