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[Word count: 8020 (excluding Notes and References)]

Shared space: Papuan perspectives of the Torres Strait

David Lawrence

While researching customary exchange across the Torres Strait as part of my doctoral

program in the 1980s, I travelled along the southwest coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG),

from the Fly estuary to the Mai Kussa tidal inlet, stopping at the numerous small coastal

villages fronting the waters of the Torres Strait. My aim was to document change in the

material culture of the canoe trade that formerly existed between the coastal Papuan and

Torres Strait Islander communities (Lawrence 1994).i I was also attempting to understand

contemporary patterns of exchange and describe the impact of social, economic and

political changes that occurred following the Independence of PNG in 1975 and the

ratification of the Torres Strait Treaty in 1985 (see, Australia. Treaties. 1978).ii

On my first extended field trip in 1985, I travelled the coast with a PNG fisheries'

researcher, Charles Tenakenai,iii and a local Kiwai-speaking interpreter and co-researcher,

Nanu Moses. The boat we used was a dirty, oily half-cabin that had seen both better days

and better mechanics. We took little food and water, the boat had no toilet, no washing

facilities and was open to the squally weather. Instead of an anchor we used an old

unidentifiable rusty machine engine. As a consequence, the trip was a near disaster. At

night we stopped in villages and paid for our food and lodgings. Despite the general

poverty of the villages, we were greeted warmly and cared for with attention. In return,

we were expected to entertain the village with stories of happenings in Daru (the

administrative centre of the Western Province), local and national politics, the state of the

nation, and life in Australia. Our reward was to be told stories of customary exchange

patterns and contact with Torres Strait Islanders, ceremonies and songs. The nights were

long and special. The tedious days, however, were hot and uncomfortable.

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Like most doctoral researchers doing their first real period of unsupervised fieldwork, I

believed that I was really learning the details of the complex economic and social

structure of the customary exchange system and, in doing so, I was mapping the patterns

of contact between Islanders and coastal Papuans. It all seemed well-constructed and

logical. I soon came to understand that my whole approach to evaluating the dynamics of

Torres Strait cultural interactions was wrong. My approach had been based on Western

intellectualism: polite but direct questions should yield substantial information. I was

quickly made to realise that contemporary life was bound tightly into a complex web of

the tales of culture heroes, travels of historical characters whose journeys established

village settlements and clan groupings, and recent accounts of settlement patterns and

migrations that mirrored those journeys. The interconnectedness of such narratives was

once understood by both coastal Papuans and Torres Strait Islanders who maintained

exchange networks across the Torres Strait. By the end of the 20th century, however, a

later generation evidently had little understanding of the complexity of relationships

among the various groups who formerly participated in these exchange systems.

Today there is little unity in national identity in PNG. Diversity is paramount and people

identify by language, place of origin or location of customary land-holdings rather than

any broader regional or national affiliation. The process of tribalisation has once again

surfaced during the current period of economic and social crisis. Because the PNG

Government has not provided the expected material rewards, loyalty to the nation is

becoming irrelevant. International borders, laws and regulations, however, are

impositions that cannot be ignored. Their implementation in recent years has served to

separate groups of people who previously exercised customary rights of access to the

Torres Strait.

The separation is clearly illustrated by the lifestyles of two groups of people in the Torres

Strait region:iv the Agob-speaking Papuans and the Islanders of northern Torres Strait.

Agob people live in two small coastal villages between the Pahoturi River and the Mai

Kussa: Sigabaduru, opposite the western end of Saibai island, and Buji, opposite Boigu

island. These villagers have always accessed the waters of the northern Torres Strait.

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Owing to proximity, they naturally maintained closest contacts with the Saibai, Dauan

and Boigu Islanders. Only a few kilometres separates these Torres Strait islands from the

Agob villages. In terms of contact, one would assume that, by the 21st century, the coastal

and island groups would have developed common perspectives of the shared space they

inhabit. This has not happened. For the coastal Papuans, the narrow passage of water now

marks a boundary they may not cross without permission; it marginalises them and

identifies them as powerless bush-people of the Western Province—the poorest of the

poor. Their health services are almost non-existent, education is a luxury few can afford,

other services and transport do not operate. Few politicans, except one seeking local

endorsement, would visit them in their marginal isolation.

The other group—the inhabitants of the northern Torres Strait islands of Boigu, Dauan

and Saibai—have a different perspective of their physical and human environment: the

waters of the Torres Strait are a rich marine environment; their identity as Torres Strait

Islanders is contained within the wider Australian community, and they connect

politically with other Islanders when presenting a collective face to the various levels of

Australian Governments that provide them with services, goods, education, and welfare.

Within the local region, inter-island rivalry, culture and local ethnicity may divide, but

Torres Strait Islander collective presentation is well managed.

Journeys of culture heroes

At the time of our field trip, Buji village looked poor, the houses made of black palm and

nipa fronds were ill-kempt, and the women and children seemed tired and dirty. The only

water available was brackish. In all our travels this was the only village that could not

provide food or lodgings for the evening; even the beach boat-shelter was inadequate in

the night rain. The mosquitoes were only kept away by an acrid smokey fire placed

outside the shelter. But I discovered that their straitened circumstances masked a rich

cultural heritage and that they owned one of the oldest creation stories in the Torres Strait

region: the story of Ubrikubri (Lawrence 1994:405–6):

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One day there was only a father named Ubrikubri, and his daughter, Girbut, living at Buji.There was no-one else. The daughter asked her father: "Can you find me a piglet that I canfeed?". The daughter gave this task of finding the piglet to her father because she was caringfor their gardens. The father went into the bush to search for a wild piglet. He found one andbrought it home but the daughter rejected it. He asked her: "Isn't this the one that you like?",and she replied: "No – I don't like that one". So he returned to the bush and came back with acassowary chick. Again she refused it.He brought a wallaby.She refused it.He brought a black wallaby.She refused it.He brought a bandicoot.She refused itHe brought a bird.She refused it.She became very cross, saying that he did not bring her anything that she liked, so he begansearching the creeks and rivers. She told him to dive into the river to look for her 'piglet'. Atlow tide he found a baby crocodile. When he gave her this, she was very happy. "Yes," shesaid, "that's the 'piglet' that I like". When she took the crocodile she sent the old man away tobuild a shelter for herself and a fence for the crocodile. The crocodile grew very large. Oneday she went into the garden to get food for the crocodile. She made an earth oven andcooked all the yams and taros. She took a container to her father and broke up the food with astick. She said to her father that because she was going into the garden tomorrow that hemust feed her 'pig'. She left a coconut-shell for water with instructions.She went into the gardens next day and when the crocodile went "urrr", the old man took thefood and water to the crocodile. However, the crocodile refused the food and water threetimes. The old man then took food in his hands and reached through the fence. The crocodilegrabbed him and dragged him down to the beach. The old man left excreta all over the beachwhich became rocks. The crocodile took the old man's body over to Boigu and put it in thechannel between Boigu and Buji. He then decided to bring him back and placed him on therocks at the end of the beach. The dragging of the old man's body created the channelbetween the island and the mainland. In the afternoon the daughter returned from the gardensbut she saw that her 'pig' was gone and the fence broken, and her father nowhere to be seen.She started to cut bamboos to make a raft to look for her father. She left off her grass skirtsexcept for one and as she went she kept singing out her father's name, "Ubrikubri e wa ya,Ubrikubri ba wa ya". She poked the bamboo pole into the water and found the body near therocks. She sang out: "Where is Ubrikubri?". (She also called her crocodile this name.) Thecrocodile showed her the old man's body. Girbut then told him to leave it here and she movedoff to live at Onom, further down the coast. The bamboo raft broke open and the bamboosdrifted to the shore, and began to grow there. The crocodile swam away and, after stopping atBuru Reef, it went to Badu, and can still be seen there swimming in the channel betweenBadu and Moa. (Bapu Mose, Buji village, PNG)

The reef between Boigu and Buji marks the location of the father's body. The channel

between Boigu and the PNG coast, identified by an adjacent sandbar and rocks, indicates

the line of marine demarkation between the two villages. The journey of the crocodile,

Ubrikubri, links the people of Buji—spiritually and culturally—with the people of the

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western islands of Torres Strait. But the close ties between the Agob people and the

western Islanders have been transformed in the recent past by international laws and

regulations and by the poverty of the Agob people. To obtain general travel permits to go

to Badu and Moa, the people of Buji must first travel to Daru to obtain written

permission. The distance to Daru is long and difficult for a villager. Consequently, except

for medical emergencies or to shop for necessities at island stores, few Agob now cross

the Torres Strait.

Within the Torres Strait itself, the cross-cutting ties that bind the island groups were also

brought about by the movements of culture heroes, for example: Gelam, Malo-Bomai,

Waiet, and Sido. Although the movements of the culture heroes may have originated on

the Papuan coast or the Australian mainland, the principal journeys served to integrate the

Torres Strait islands.

Gelam lived with his mother at Moa island in the western Torres Strait. After quarrelling

with his mother, he left Moa taking with him a dugong which he had fashioned from

canoe timber. After journeying via Nagi, Warraber and Puruma islands, he finally arrived

at Mer (Murray Island) in the eastern Torres Strait. There the dugong turned into the hill

now called Gelam. Gelam, according to the story (Haddon 1908, VI: 23–25, 59), was

credited with being the man who brought garden foods to Mer.

A version of the Gelam narrative is also told by the coastal Kiwai people of Katatai

village on the mainland opposite Parama island at the mouth of the Fly estuary (Lawrence

1994: 414):

The island is now called Mer. A dugong went from here [Katatai] and he loaded all types ofthings such as taro, yams, and bananas on his back. He also took all the bush materials suchas cane, bamboo, fruit, etc., and sugar cane. The dugong travelled right out to sea, but thenstarted to sink. First, he turned towards the Nigori winds (southeast winds), then he turnedtowards the Hurama winds (northwest winds), but both times he said : "No". He then turnedback towards the Hiea winds (southwest winds) and started to sink down on the reef. Hesettled there and now you can see Mer in the shape of a dugong. All the mainland crops andfoods are there [in Mer]. (Awadau Simona, Katatai village, PNG)

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The Gelam story is told by people at both ends of the Torres Strait as a means of

connecting them spiritually and culturally with the Meriam. The connection is not

confined to one element in the narratives. The origin of the Malo-Bomai cult, which

flourished in the 19th century (Haddon 1908, VI: 281–313), further emphasises contacts

between Papuan and Islander peoples. According to this narrative (Haddon 1908, VI: 33–

46, 61–62), Bomai came from 'Tuger' [Tugeri].v The saga of Bomai, as recorded by

Haddon, does not explain why Bomai left the Papuan mainland. However, by changing

through various disguises—such as a whale, turtle, dugong, porpoise, crayfish and a

canoe—he eventually reached Mer, having visited Boigu, Dauan, Mabuiag, Badu, Moa,

Nagi, Yam, Masig, Dauar, the Great Barrier Reef, and Waier.vi Haddon (1908, VI: 40)

also related how men from the other clan groups of the Meriam all came from 'Tuger' in

canoes in the search for Bomai. The Malo-Bomai cult became firmly established in its

duality in the eastern islands of the Torres Strait where it was still in existence in the late

19th century when the first Christian missionaries arrived.

The story of another culture hero of Mer, named Waiet, was told to Haddon by A.O.C.

Davies, a school teacher on Mer during the 1920s (Davies 1924–1972; Haddon 1928). In

this story, Waiet travelled from Mabuiag to Nagi and then to Mer. Hearing that Malo was

in possession of Mer he settled at Waier. An effigy of Waiet was made from turtle-shell

by the people of Mer. Until its removal by Davies early in the 1920s, this effigy was

hidden in the rocks of the island of Waier, close to Mer.vii Other versions of the story told

to Haddon (1904, V: 48) were of Waiet's journeys from the Binaturi River to Daru, then

to the Torres Strait islands of Ugar and Tudu. Yet another version (Haddon 1928: 129)

told of Waiet's travels from the Fly River to Mer and then to Badu, Moa, Nagi and

Mabuiag. Concerning the links between cult ceremonies of the Torres Strait and the

Papuan mainland, Haddon concluded: 'The traditional origin of the Waiet cult from the

western part of British New Guinea [Papua] is thus substantiated, as it is in agreement

with analogous cults of that region' (Haddon 1928: 135).

This examination of cult origins is not to deny the 'originality' of the old ceremonial

practices of the Torres Strait Islanders but, rather, to demonstrate continuity and antiquity

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of inter-ethnic contacts within the region as a whole. It also emphasises that the mutual

sharing of ritual and ceremonial practices, extending over a long period of time, was an

integral part of the customary exchange system. Tangible as well as intangible items were

exchanged between Torres Strait Islanders and coastal Papuans.

Other culture hero and origin stories are known throughout the region. The principal

Kiwai origin story concerns the culture hero Sido (or Sida), from his creation at Dibiri in

the Fly estuary to his death on Boigu. The story of Sido was recorded by both Haddon

(1908, VI: 59) and Landtman (1917: 95–119). According to Haddon, Sido came from

Daudai (Papua) in a canoe and went to Mer. Wherever he went, Sido planted bananas and

pandanus trees. Sido had intercourse with various women along the way. Coconuts were

created from his semen and he was responsible for the creation of many shells and the

rich marine life of the reef. After these adventures he returned to Papua.viii The Kiwai

stories about Sido specifically refer to his origin in the Fly estuary and his journey along

the southwest coast to Boigu:

According to these tales Sido journeyed along the coast between the estuary of the Fly andBoigu…The essential feature of the Kiwaian versions is that Sido was a hero who wasassociated with death and was the pioneer to the land of the spirits… (Haddon 1935, I: 377)

The Kadawa–Katatai–Parama group of people have maintained the most consistent direct

contacts with the eastern Islanders and they continue sporadically to visit the Torres

Strait. Because of their close proximity to Daru, they are able to sail to and from the

regional centre daily. Consequently, they can access travel permits relatively easily

(Lawrence 1994: 403–405). In Daru I was fortunate to hear a version of the long and

complex story of Sido from a Kadawa man:

The story of Sido begins with his creation at Dibiri, near the mouth of the Bamu River. Sidowas then expelled from Dibiri because of the power of his magic and so he journeyed toU'uwo on Kiwai Island where he was reborn through the body of a woman joined at the waistto her sister. These women taught Sido the magic associated with food collecting and huntingand in return he split them apart so that they could live in separate places.During his wanderings around Kiwai Island, Sido met an old man who showed him the magicfor making drums and small canoes. From the sound made by his first drum, Sido learned thename of a woman who lived at Iasa on the western side of Kiwai Island. By using a magictree, Sido was transported to Iasa where he met this woman, Sagaru. However, Sido andSagaru soon quarrelled over Sido's sexual inabilities and she fled from Sido to mainlandPapua. Aided by his magic children, the birds, Sido decided to follow her. Sido made canoesfrom various trees, such as nipa palm, but these were unsuccessful. Finally, he made a large

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canoe from a 'strong tree'. This canoe was in the form of a partially hollowed-out log and, inthis canoe, Sido made room for his food, bows, arrows and his bird children.Sido sailed to Mibu where he met Sagaru again. Again she fled from him but Sido followedher along the coast to Mabudawan. At Mabudawan, he climbed the hill and, when he jumpeddown, his feet made an imprint in the rocks which can still be seen. From Mabudawan,Sagaru and Sido went to Boigu island but they were followed by a man named Meuri whoalso desired Sagaru. On Boigu, Meuri and Sido fought and Meuri cut off Sido's head. Meurigave Sagaru water in the decapitated head but she threw it away and where it fell was turnedinto a deep well which still exists on Boigu. Meuri caused Sagaru's death but the spirits ofSido and Sagaru returned to U'uwo. Sido's grave can still be seen there in a place that staysfresh and green during all seasons. The location of Sagaru's grave is not known. (MageramoMareke, Daru, PNG)

Beckett (1975: 177–178), discussing the Sido saga, stated that it incorporated elements

common to most creation stories in Oceania. These elements include:

...the primeval killing; re-incarnation through rebirth and through shedding of the old body,followed by the acquisition of a new one; death becoming irreversible; the separation ofghosts and mortals; and the establishment of a ghostly world.

Sido is also credited with the introduction of certain plant foods into the Torres Strait

(Laade 1971: 1–8). As he travelled around the Torres Strait he was given a woman in

return for food plants. In some islands he was given an ugly woman, and these islands are

barren, but on Mer he was given the most handsome girl, and this island is one of the

most fertile in Torres Strait. Sido later returned to Kiwai Island from Mer (see, Lawrence

1994: 294). The other important point that should be noted is that the journey of Sido

along the coast and into the Torres Strait legitimises the expansion of the Kiwai people

and their eventual occupation of the coastal beach strand. From there they came to

dominate the pathways of contact across the Torres Strait region.

The principal function of many of the culture hero narratives is to provide a metaphorical

representation of the world and the forces governing it (Terrell 1986: 7). Creation stories

also serve as charters for existing social institutions for, although they may not be true

historical records of the past, neither are they aimless stories or imaginings; rather, they

serve as guides for moral values, social order and magical beliefs (Lacey 1981). Besides

serving as entertainment, the story-telling has a practical, social and educational value.

The stories themselves may seem selective in what they relate, and they may even be

arbitrary in what they emphasise, but they have a well-defined role in linking the

mythological past with the historical past.

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Travels of the ancestors in the historical past

The original settlers in the eastern islands of the Torres Strait were said to be Pop and

Kod, who came from the Fly River to the area of Zaub, the central part of a village in Mer

(Haddon 1908, VI: 19 and 1935, I: 103–104; Laade 1968: 141–143). Another story

explains how three women from a shipwrecked fishing party swam ashore at Erub and

Mer. These women were later seen by men from Papua who settled with them on these

islands where they were joined by other people from the Papuan mainland.ix

Origin stories from the central islands also describe Papuan connections. The

ethnomusicologist, Wolfgang Laade (1968: 145), noted that the original inhabitants of

both Yam and Tudu were the Bine-speaking people who now live back from the coast

and along the Binaturi River. He also stated that Maida was the first Yam Islander. An

early version of the story of Maida from Yam documents the close relationship between

the islanders of Tudu and the people of Papua.x The following is a summary of the

account collected by Rev. W.H. MacFarlane (1928/29; see also, Haddon 1935, I: 81–83)

from a Yam Islander, Maino, who learned it from his father, Kebisu:

Amubalee, a man from a Dirimu village on the Binaturi River, fled from a wild pig and sailedout on a bamboo raft into the Torres Strait to Tudu. Here he met with other people whoexchanged a woman with him and he remained on Tudu and had a family there. In themeantime, his first wife in Papua had given birth and raised a son. This son, Uibalu, killedthe wild pig and in doing so raised up all the people from the Bine- and Gizra-speakingvillages of Peawa, Kuru, Jibu, Masingara, Irupi and Togo who had been killed by this pig.Leaving his mother, Uibalu set out to find his father. He arrived at Tudu by sailing downWapa Reef. Uibalu was reunited with his father and gave him food from Papua, includingparts of the pig which he had killed. Uibalu returned to Papua after instructing his father thatafter five days he was to come back to Papua bringing many of the Tudu people. The Tudupeople came and made friends with the people living in the bush in Papua and after this thePapuan people married with people from Tudu and Yam. Maida, the great fighting leader ofYam, came from the family of the son of Amubalee and a Tudu woman.

This story illustrates the closely-established exchange and marriage ties between the Yam

and Tudu Islanders and the people living in the riverine area of the southwest coast of

Papua prior to contact with Europeans. Other stories relating to the strength of these ties

are also told by the people living in the Bine- and Gizra-speaking villages along the

Binaturi and Pahoturi Rivers. A highly-respected elder in Masingara village on the

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Binaturi River recounted a story—an extension of the Amubalee narrative— of the

journeys of Saika (Lawrence 1994: 419–420):

The people on Yam Island thought of their relatives on the [Papuan] mainland. Saika wastold that if he wanted to, he could travel back to the mainland. He came back to visit peopleand to travel around the land. When he came he brought fish from the reef, dugong, turtle,coneshells, bailer shells, shellfish, and trumpet shells. The villagers met him and he gavethem these things from the reef. They brought him to the village, and he slept there. At thattime they used counting-sticks to tell the number of days. They gave him seven sticks, andtold him to come back when the last one was thrown out. They held hands and took him tothe canoe and gave him foods. They then said farewell. We now have relatives on Yam,Masig, Coconut [Puruma], Boigu and now on other islands as well. This can be proved. Thebones of the dugong, turtle and fish can be seen opposite the village near the creek. (SideSaiade Ben, Masingara village, PNG)

Coastal Papuans describe how the fertile islands of Mer, Erub and Ugar were populated

by people cast adrift on strong river currents (Lawrence 1994: 425–426):

Our people [Gizra] were going to Gida [on the Pahoturi River] for initiation ceremonies onthe land where we learnt our lore. During this time people used rafts to cross rivers and, atthis time, the wind was blowing from the northwest and the current was very strong. On theraft were many people, including a pregnant woman named Agor. They could not cross theriver, and began to be washed down the river. They had fruit and nuts from the bush, becausethis was the lean time for food, before full fruiting and before the good taro and bananaswere ripe. The wind and current took them out into the sea and right over to Mer. Their firewent out while they were travelling. There were other people on Mer, and they asked thepeople on the raft : "Where have you come from?". The people told them that they wereGizra people. The pregnant woman gave birth there, and the raft people mixed and marriedinto the Mer people. On Mer there were no breadfruit trees, or nuts, etc., but now theseislands are full of fruit trees that the Gizra people took with them. (Sair Buia, Kulalae village,PNG)

These drift stories are widespread and extend as far as Kiwai Island in the Fly estuary

(Lawrence 1994: 429):

While the small children were swimming in the river off Kiwai Island, they saw a big log andstarted jumping off it. When they saw the tree drifting out from the village they all jumpedoff but the smallest boy could not swim far and he just stayed sitting on the log. The currenttook the log out from the village to the sea. The current washed him past Samari and towardsMibu island. Half way the current took him past Parama island. Between Kadawa and Daruthe current continued to take him. The tide pushed him to Baramaki (Bramble Cay), and thenbegan to wash him right to Mer. When the log came there the boy stayed sitting on the loguntil one man and his wife, going out to their gardens, found him there. The man and his wifeasked him what had happened, but he could not talk. He made signs to tell them what hadhappened. The man and his wife took him to their gardens with them. Then they hid him intheir house because they did not want him killed. Both of them went to the headman to tellhim about the boy and ask that they could keep him as their son. The headman told them tobring the boy to him. He said that they could keep him in memory of the Fly River. The boy

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grew up and they gave him a wife and he had children. On Mer his big family can still befound. (Moses Somogi, Kadawa village, PNG)

Village stories from coastal Papua also detail the connections established in the

customary exchange system (Lawrence 1994: 414):

There was an old village of Doridori.xi Near there were two long-houses called Kudin andWasigena. Kadawa people lived in Kudin. The [present] Parama village people lived atWasigena. From there people went to the Torres Strait. They would go there and come backto the village. They also went to the Fly River. They travelled up the bank of the Fly Riverand across to Iasa (Kiwai Island). In those days there were no trees on Parama island, only asandbank. They saw Parama island coming up. They separated because there were a lot ofpeople. From Doridori some moved to Parama island. The elder clan stayed at Parama; thejunior clan went to [the coastal village of] Katatai.When they went to the Torres Strait, they took mats, brooms and baskets. The Islanders usedto give them goods but not with money. Some of the island people lived here (PNG) andsome Katatai people lived there (Torres Strait), mostly at Mer. They used to take trochusshells, bailer shells. and some other shells, especially cowrie shells from the reefs. (AwadauSimona, Katatai village, PNG)

The close relationship between the people of the northern islands of Torres Strait and the

coastal riverine-dwelling people of nearby PNG also has a basis in the narratives of

culture heroes who crossed the narrow passage of the northern Torres Strait. Laade (1968:

142) recorded that the first settler on Saibai was Melawal who lived underground in a

bailer shell. Another man, named Budia, who assumed the form of a willy-wagtail

(Rhipidura leucophrys), came from the direction of Boigu and settled near Melawal's

home on the western side of Saibai. Two men, Nima and Puipui who were both 'bushmen'

from Papua, came from the eastern side to where Melawal and Budia were living, in

search of their lost sister. They later returned to Papua. Saibai originally contained two

settlements: one at Ait on the eastern side, and the other on the western side at the site of

the present village of Saibai. According to Laade (1968: 144), the people at Ait were

'bush people' from the Pahoturi River.xii Landtman (1917: 148–152) stated that Nimo and

Puipui, who lived at Ait, travelled to the Mawatta area opposite Daru island where they

obtained outrigger canoes which they brought back to Saibai. Two men from the western

island of Mabuiag came to Saibai and saw these new canoes and, after remodelling them

by adding another outrigger, returned to Mabuiag. This was the origin of the traffic in

canoes from the southwest coast of Papua and the Fly estuary to the islands of the Torres

Strait (Lawrence 1994: 406–7):

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There were two brothers named Sagaribada and Girimabua. Girimabua said that he wasgoing to live on the [Papuan] mainland at Sigabaduru, but Sagaribada said that he would liveon Saibai island. Girimabua made a raft out of bamboos and a mat sail from the reedsgrowing in the swamps, and using this journeyed back and forth visiting his brother.Some other people lived in the swamps on Saibai, and Sagaribada married one woman fromthere named Geiga. Girimabua went into an inland place (on the mainland) and married a girlwhose name was Ait. [This may explain why the Papuan village on eastern Saibai was calledAit. (See also, note 12.)] Sagaribada had children in Saibai but Girimabua's children wereborn in Sigabaduru. Because of this relationship, Saibai and Sigabaduru people look aftereach other. There are no disputes and the fishing grounds are open to all. From thegrandparents' time until now, they have been exchanging gifts. Saibai people also know thisstory. (Pina Darua, Sigabaduru village, PNG)

Relationships between Islanders and Papuans were not always friendly but the customary

exchange of women continued to be a formal means for reinforcing and consolidating

intercommunity relationships (Lawrence 1994: 407):

A man called Wagebau came from Saibai to a place between Sigabaduru and Buji. There hemet the man Pala who asked him: "Why did you come here?". Wagebau said: "I have come tovisit friends". Pala pulled a lump of grass and said if Wagabau killed the Guiar villagepeople, Pala would pay him with the woman Mogai. However, Wagebau decided to return toSaibai. He later heard that Pala had died and when he [Wagebau] went back to the mainlandhe began to kill people. One man, Kua, the younger brother of Pala, survived and said toWagebau: "You have killed enough already – leave the rest alone". As soon as he heard this,Wagebau decided to make friends. Kua then got all the girls and dressed them all the same ingrass skirts, and sat them before Wagebau, and told him that the girl in the middle will be hiswife. Wagebau took the girl and sat next to her during the feast and told Kua: "I will be goingback to Saibai tomorrow". Wagebau sang this song:

Big cassowary (name of the girl) is going to the big place (Saibai).When this man (Wagebau) shook the uzu tree,the seeds fell down.He got his prize and now he is going back.

Wagebau then slept. He got Mogai and took the grass skirt off her, and hung it on a tree nearthe shore. He and Mogai sailed to Saibai. The people did not know where she was going asthey did not know Saibai. Wagebau and Mogai settled on Saibai and they had children. Oneof their descendants includes Bamaga who died (the town on Cape York is named after him).There are now many grandchildren. (Rubu Ag, Sigabaduru village, PNG)

In the western islands of Torres Strait, away from easy access to the Papuan coast, the

islands of Muralag and Moa became places of refuge of the Hiamo-Hiamo people driven

from Daru by the frequent raids of the Kiwai people who were moving down from the Fly

estuary and settling along the narrow coastal strand of the southwest coast of Papua

(Laade 1968: 145). The story of the flight of the Hiamo-Hiamo of Daru (recorded by

13

Landtman 1917: 366–367) is still recounted in eastern Kiwai villages today (Lawrence

1994: 416):

At first on Daru island, there were no mangrove trees; it was only a sandbank. The Hiamo-Hiamo, the first people there, originally came from Yam island. They were called Hiamo-Hiamo by the Kiwai-speaking people. Kiwai Island people and people from Katatai wentfrom the mainland planning to kill the Hiamo-Hiamo people. Damabe was the son of a manfrom Yam, [named] Gaidiri, and his wife, Bobo [also the name of the island adjacent toDaru]. When the fighting started, Damabe was making his dugong harpoon. As there were notrees, the Hiamo-Hiamo could not hide and so they were killed [others fled]. Damabeescaped by covering himself with a turtle shell. People jumped over the shell while he washiding under it. When the fighting finished they searched the island for other people. Theythen returned to their canoes, sounded the conch shell and returned to the mainland. Damabecame out from under the shell and swam to Goli [a creek on Bobo island] where he lit a fire.The Katatai people saw the smoke coming from the bush and came to Goli, but told Damabenot to be frightened as they only came to fetch him not to kill him. When they took Damabeback to Katatai they told Bani, a Boigu man, that they would give Bani's sister Mereke toDamabe in marriage. (Moses Somogi, Kadawa village, PNG)

These stories explain how the people of Yam, Daru, Boigu and Katatai, and the Kiwai

from the estuary, are linked in a chain of social relationships. The lines of contact and

exchange between Papuans and Islanders were flexible, open to manipulation and subject

to alteration depending on customary obligations, opportunistic economic and social

advantages, and even seasonal factors. Laade (1968: 150) believed that a series of parallel

lines could be drawn in the oral evidence which emphasised regional similarities: the

eastern Islanders' traditions tell of people coming from the Fly River settling in the

eastern islands; the Muralag and Daru traditions detail the escape of the Hiamo-Hiamo

people who fled into the Torres Strait away from warfare and Kiwai raiding, settling in

the western islands; the Yam–Tudu and Papuan traditions describe how the central

islands were settled by the Papuan peoples from the Binaturi River area; while in the

northern islands, Saibai was settled by two groups of people, one of which was probably

from the Pahoturi River region.

Recent accounts of social contacts

In Melanesia, oral testimonies also form a record of the patterns of journeys of people as

both traders and migrants:

14

These traditions of migrations are significant to people's heritage, for the knowledgetransmitted through generations in legend, song, chant and dance constitute their basic legal,political, social and economic charters. It is on this basis that the rights and obligations oflineages are defined within communities, and both access to and use of specific resourcesand territories are defended. (Lacey 1985: 89)

The movements of culture heroes legitimise and guide the movements and migrations of

villagers. Oral traditions serve to link people to important cultural ancestors and, most

especially, to those events of the past that are the possession of a cultural group as a

whole, or that collectively belong to one particular clan or group in a society.

The most significant cultural change that occurred before the coming of Europeans to the

Torres Strait and the Papuan coast in the late 19th century was the movement of the

Kiwai people from the Fly estuary. The coastal Kiwai-speaking villages of Kadawa,

Mawatta, Tureture and Mabudawan share one common origin story: the story of Bidedu.

A version of the story was collected by Landtman during his fieldwork between 1910 and

1912 (Landtman 1917: 85–88). A similar story told to me at Mabudawan illustrates the

close associations between the inland people and the coastal people who established

themselves on the littoral zone close to the mouth of the Fly River. The coastal people,

after settling on the beach at Mawatta opposite Daru island, mixed with Daru and Fly

estuary people, and then began to separate. These groups established the present Kiwai-

speaking villages of Tureture, Mawatta and Mabudawan to the west (Lawrence 1994:

408–411):

Bidedu, who lived inland at Kuru, had much knowledge of gardening, hunting and fishing.One day an eagle dropped a turtle bone in his garden and as he had no knowledge of this typeof bone, he decided to journey to the shore to discover where it had come from. Near thecoast opposite Daru island, he found people locked in a 'vine tree' and he released them.Bidedu showed these people how to make fire, to wash, to cook garden foods and how toplant gardens. Bidedu and the 'vine people' settled at Dudupatu at the mouth of the OriomoRiver. Bidedu caused Biza, the first man to come out of the 'vine tree', to go to sleep; he alsocaused him to dream and in these dreams he would find a way to the beach where he wouldbe given knowledge of fishing.Biza went to the coast and later moved his people, who were then called the Kadawarubi, toMawatta–Dodomea. They settled on the beach at Mawatta opposite Daru and from there theymade contact with the inhabitants of Daru island who taught them how to hunt dugong.Bidedu stayed behind in the bush. (Jawagi Maru and Amabi of Mabudawan village, PNG)

A slightly different story collected from Tureture village was interpreted by Eley (1988:

26) as having three principal structures: the coastal Kiwai originated at Dudupatu near the

15

Oriomo River; they occupied vacant lands and then gained access to reefs and seas; and

there was no explanation for the origin of the people found in the bush by Bidedu, called

variously the 'vine people' or the 'five brothers'. However, while the Fly estuary people

describe the gradual migration of the Kiwai people out from Kiwai Island and their

movement down and along the southwest coast, the Bine, Gidra and Gizra peoples contest

the 'vacant coast' idea. Their position is that they originally made friends with the Kiwai

settlers and, after offering them use of the land as a part of a normal seafoods for garden

foods exchange system, found themselves isolated from their original contacts with

Torres Strait Islanders. The people discovered by Bidedu were, in fact, the first Kiwai

settlers.

The Bidedu story illustrates the way in which the Kiwai people — who settled on the

Mawatta beach area after moving from the Fly estuary — first learned from the Oriomo

River people how to make gardens and eat garden foods. From the Daru Islanders they

learned to hunt dugong and turtle and the rituals and ceremonies associated with hunting.

As the story of the Hiamo-Hiamo people shows, these Daru people were most likely

Torres Strait Islanders, possibly related to the Yam Islanders.

The long narrative of the settlement of the coast by the Kiwai describes how the village at

Mawatta grew. The headman, Gamea, had gathered other people from the Fly estuary, and

from Parama and Daru islands. Gamea then began searching the western coast for new

lands. As he travelled along the coast he named rivers, islands and points — including the

Binaturi and Pahoturi rivers, Augaramuba point and Marukura island (where the dead are

buried) — as far as Saibai island. At the mouth of the Binaturi River, Gamea and his

people established a village, which they named Mawatta after the old village, and they

settled there. They later settled at Mabudawan and occupied the ceremonial lands of the

Gizra people (Lawrence 1994: 312).

The story of Gamea is an oral document of the movements of the Kiwai people along the

southwest coast from the Fly estuary to the Pahoturi River, and of the knowledge that they

acquired from local people during the migration. The story of Gamea and Kuke, as

16

recorded by Eley (1988: 50–52), also confirms the recent arrival of the Kiwai along the

southwest coast and supports the claims of the coastal Kiwai that the coastal villages are

clearly divided into two sections: the eastern villages of Parama, Kadawa and Katatai, and

the western villages of Mawatta, Tureture and Mabudawan. Following the establishment

of these villages, the Kiwai began using the waters and reefs of the Torres Strait. They

also began visiting the Fly estuary people. The people of the coastal villages obtained

canoes from the Fly estuary in exchange for shells and learned to modify the river canoes

and make large canoes which could be used in the open sea of the Torres Strait.

The consequence of the Kiwai having settled on the narrow strand between the coastal

swamps and the northern Torres Strait was effectively, and permanently, to severe the

exchange routes between inland Papuans and Islanders. Being entreprenurial sea-traders

with no garden lands of their own, the Kiwai quickly adapted the intercultural exchange

system to their advantage. With the arrival of the missions and the White colonial

administrators in the late 19th century, the Kiwai were again in an advantageous position

to command duties as police, boat-crew, labourers and servants. Their entry into the cash

economy was quickly facilitated. By the early part of the 20th century the customary

exchange system across Torres Strait was a dual economy: part-exchange, part-purchase.

The use of canoes as a means of transport on the PNG side of the Torres Strait continued

until the late 1980s. It has now been replaced by the use of fibreglass 'banana' boats

purchased from local manufacturers. On the Australian side, Torres Strait Islanders have

used aluminium dinghies ('tinnies') for at least 20 to 30 years. Papuans now visit the

northern islands mainly for medical treatment and food supply or occasionally for special

events such as weddings. The days of long-established close social and economic

relationships between coastal Papuans and Torres Strait Islanders have been transformed.

The maintenance and creation of friendships continues, cross-sex relationships bloom and

fade, domestic labour is recruited from Papua by Islanders, and resident Papuans in the

Torres Strait Islands remit cash home to their villages on the mainland.xiii The ties still

bind but they are weaker than in the past.

17

Conclusion

Narratives representing the Papuan perspectives of the Torres Strait legitimised cultural

and spiritual contacts across a diverse region. The stories provided pathways upon which

the coastal and island Papuan people could journey. These pathways linked people over a

shared space from prehistorical time to the present. Yet the flexibility and opportunities

for change that previously existed within these pathways allowed the various peoples who

lived in or had access to the Torres Strait to make continual adjustments to their lifestyles,

as necessity demanded. In turn, this flexibility allowed for a certain equilibrium to be

maintained across the ‘shared space’. In contrast, the recently-imposed political and legal

systems are inflexible and, at least on the Australian side, are rigidly enforced.

Consequently, over the past three decades, the shared space—the Torres Strait—has

become divided and two peoples, coastal Papuans of the Western Province and Australian

Torres Strait Islanders, are now moving along different trajectories. Zate Nog, a Gizra

elder living in Kulalae village, expressed the Papuan viewpoint clearly:

The name [of our village], Kulalae, is a Torres Strait Islander name. Today because of therestrictions, we do not see each other as much as we want to, but we do go to see them bygetting permits from Customs. Now we want to bring back that relationship, which we hadbefore, but we cannot, because we do not understand the laws our PNG Government hasimposed. The relationship we had before [with Torres Strait Islanders] has been cut off, andnow we want to make a move to become [politically] part of the Torres Strait Islands [ofAustralia]. We could go there illegally. (Lawrence 1994: 426)

Although their shared cultural history serves to unite Papuans and Torres Strait

Islanders—and limited social interaction continues to the present—the Papuan

perspectives of the Torres Strait are now tinged with bitterness and envy. Papuans today

view the Torres Strait Islanders as being rich materially, politically and socially. Yet

despite their material poverty, the Papuans are rich in culture: the southwest coast of PNG

is alive with traditions and stories.xiv However, along the Papuan coast where there is

little internal rule of law, other aspects of contemporary life are also evident: sorcery,

illegal drugs, gun-smuggling, prostitution and corruption. Torres Strait Islanders rightly

complain of their minority position within the majority Anglo-Australian culture, and of

18

their isolation from Australian mainland services, but they do not live under the constant

threat of violence that has invaded Daru and affects Papuan village lifestyles.xv

Without the continuing unrestricted physical movement of people and goods, the water

roads of the Torres Strait are now comparatively empty. In this current era, the Torres

Strait Treaty, now 23 years old, was designed to maintain traditional peoples’ cultural

rights of free access within the limits of the Protected Zone. However, economic, political

and international legal changes and interpretations of the Treaty have led to the

establishment of new processes, applied through the use of quarantine and customs

regulations and travel permits, that in practice and in principle serve to separate. My

experiences living and working in the coastal region of the Western Province in the

1980s, and in subsequent years, have led me to an understanding of the Papuan

viewpoint. Coastal Papuan people believe that they have been cheated of their birthright:

the right to an equal share of the bounty of the Torres Strait.

Acknowledgement

I sincerely thank Helen Reeves Lawrence for her detailed comments on early drafts of this

essay and for assistance in the final preparation of the text. I am grateful to Richard Davis

for his thoughtful critique of the final draft of the essay, and for his continuing interest in

my research work.

Notes

i. In addition to Papuan oral sources, the most important historical sources were the writings ofA. C. Haddon (1888, 1890, 1898 and 1928), especially the collected reports of the CambridgeAnthropological Expedition of 1898 (Haddon 1901–1935), and the work of the Finnishanthropologist, Gunnar Landtman (1910–12, 1917, 1927 and 1933). The notes and papers of anumber of colonial administrators, missionaries and traders who were based in Daru island addeddepth and continuity to Haddon's and Landtman's work (Chalmers 1887, 1903; Beardmore 1890;Beaver 1920; Butcher 1963; Hunt 1899; Jiear 1904/05; Middleton 1972 a & b, and Randolph1965).

ii. For an official Australian view of the Treaty and its relevance to the Torres Straitenvironment, see Laffan (1991). For a legal interpretation of the Treaty and its relevance fortraditional fishing in the Torres Strait, see Mfodwo and Tsamenyi (1993). For a discussion oftraditional fishing and marine tenure, in relation to the Treaty, see Johannes and MacFarlane(1991: 21 and passim, including figs. 3, 7 & 8). See Lawrence (1994: 374–381) for anexplanation of the Torres Strait Protected Zone, as allowed for within the Treaty, and an outline

19

of the resulting sociopolitical issues affecting both Papuans and Islanders. For historicalbackground of the PNG border discussions in which Torres Strait Islanders participated, seeBeckett (1987: 171ff) and Boyce and White (1981).

iii. Mr Tenakenai was the fisheries researcher attached to the PNG Department of PrimaryIndustries, Fisheries Section, in Daru. His tasks involved a survey of the barramundi catch, andincidental collection of data on the dugong catch that passed through the Daru market.

iv. For the purposes of this paper, I define the Torres Strait region as an area of considerablegeographical, ecological and cultural diversity that encompasses the islands of the TorresStrait—both Papua New Guinean and Australian—and the Fly estuary and southwest coast ofPapua. This definition is also the one used by the governments of Australia and PNG that ratifiedthe Torres Strait Treaty in 1985. The establishment of precise geographical and politicalboundaries of the Protected Zone was one matter of concern in the establishment of the Treaty,and an area termed "in the vicinity of" the zone was also declared. For a detailed description ofthe area "in the vicinity of the Protected Zone", see Lawrence 1989: 443–446 (see also, Lawrence1991: 481–484).

v. The Tugeri people, named after a principal village known as Tugeri or Sugeri (and referred toby Haddon as 'Tuger'), were Marind-Anim people from the southeast corner of former DutchNew Guinea (now the Tonda region of West Papua), who were feared by all the coastal Papuanpeople (Williams 1936: 43). Until the death of their war leader, Para, at Mawatta in 1888–89, theraids of the Marind-Anim (or Tugeri) forced Papuan villagers inland and into the bush or out tosea to the relative safety of the Torres Strait islands (Lawrence 1994: 412, Story No. 10). Indiscussing different versions of the story, Haddon (1908, VI: 44) surmised that 'the country of thedreaded head-hunting Tugeri, [was] somewhere west of the [then] Netherlands–Britishboundary'. Kanai Tura of Mawatta village, and other coastal Papuans in the region, inconversation with me always referred to the Tugeri as coming from the Morehead region, but theterm 'Morehead' may have been used generally to describe an area 'to the west' (see, for example,Story No. 10 in Lawrence 1994: 412).

vi. Ohshima (1983a: 6 and 1983b), summarising information obtained by Kitaoji (1979), reporteda slightly different route for the journey of Bomai, passing from 'Tuger' to Boigu, Dauan,Mabuiag, Muralag, Nagi, Warraber, Puruma, Awridh, Masig and, finally, to Mer. Lawrie (1970:326) stated that Bomai was the secret name for the cult (see also, Haddon 1908, VI:. 37, fn1).The secular name, Malo, was derived from the Meriam (eastern islands language) word for thedeep sea outside the reef. In Kala Lagaw Ya (western islands language) this was Malu (Lawrie1970: 327). The notion of the dual nature of the Bomai cult was brought by the men from Nagi,Yam and Masig who came in search of Malo-Bomai.

vii. The effigy of Waiet is now housed in the Queensland Museum in Brisbane.

viii. Other stories about Sido were recorded by Haddon (1935, I: 374–378, and 1904, V: 28–36)who concluded that Sido was a culture hero who came from the extreme west beyond Boigu andvisited the islands of the Torres Strait (Haddon 1935, I: 377). Stories of Sido were also collectedby Beardmore (1890: 465–466) and by Landtman (1917: 95–119).

ix. This account of the origin of the Meriam people is also given by Haddon (1935, I: 102).

x. Maida is also known in Yam island as Meidha (see, Fuary 2000: 221). For an analysis of therelationships between Yam Islanders and Papuans, from a Torres Strait Islander perspective, seeFuary 2000.

xi. The name of this village is derived from dori (or dari), referring to men's headdress. This isthe style of headdress worn today as an item of men's dance costume.

xii. Although Laade stated that Nimo and Puipui were 'bushmen' from near the Pahoturi River,Papua, who came over to Saibai, the stories recorded by Landtman (1917) and Lawrie (1970)

20

simply related that Nimo and Puipui were from Ait in Saibai without any specific reference totheir Papuan origins. Pina Darua's story of Sagaribada and Girimabua, however, emphasised thePapuan nature of Ait village.

xiii. For an account of the kinds of work undertaken by Papuans in a Torres Strait Islandercommunity, see Fuary (2000: 224). For statistics on cross-border visits, see Arthur (1990: 11).For information on Papua New Guineans in Saibai island, see Davis (1995: 5, 9, 19 & note 8).

xiv. It is also evident that Torres Strait Islanders themselves view Papuans as 'materially poor yetculturally very powerful' (Fuary 2000: 224).

xv. This statement is based on my own observations and experiences over an 11 year period(1984 to 1995), and on information from Papuan friends who visited me in Port Moresby during1998 to 2000 when I was a resident of PNG. Issues of concern to southwest coastal Papuanvillagers include: the availability of guns; the use of drugs (mainly marijuana) by young people;prostitution; STDs brought into the villages by young men who 'played up' in Daru; alchoholabuse; diabetes; poverty due to poor fish catches and lower economic returns on work in adepressed economy; the lack of welfare, education and health services, and, most insidious of all,the growing level of corruption that now reaches to village level. Many Papuans I met with fromthis region felt powerless to alter their circumstances or prevent what they saw as negativeinfluences that in recent years have led to increasing violence in their communities. Theirrequests for government assistance often go unanswered.

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