DOCSLIB.ORG

Torres Strait Islanders: a New Deal

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Torres Strait Islanders: a New Deal The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS: A NEW DEAL A REPORT ON GREATER AUTONOMY FOR TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Affairs August 1997 Canberra Commonwealth of Australia 1997 ISBN This document was produced from camera-ready copy prepared by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and printed by AGPS Canberra. The cover was produced in the AGPS design studios. The graphic on the cover was developed from a photograph taken on Yorke/Masig Island during the Committee's visit in October 1996. CONTENTS FOREWORD ix TERMS OF REFERENCE xii MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMMITTEE xiii GLOSSARY xiv SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS xv CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION REFERRAL TO COMMITTEE.......................................................................................................................................1 CONDUCT OF THE INQUIRY ......................................................................................................................................1 SCOPE OF THE REPORT.............................................................................................................................................2 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS .................................................................................................................................3 Commonwealth-State Cooperation ....................................................................................................................3 The Need for Consultation .................................................................................................................................4 A Staged Process................................................................................................................................................5 CHAPTER 2 – SETTING THE CONTEXT INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................7 THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE TORRES STRAIT REGION ..................................................................................................7 THE PEOPLE OF THE TORRES STRAIT .......................................................................................................................8 Torres Strait Islanders........................................................................................................................................8 Aboriginals Living in the Torres Strait Region ................................................................................................10 Other Residents of the Torres Strait Region.....................................................................................................11 People from Papua New Guinea......................................................................................................................12 HISTORY OF THE REGION ...................................................................................................................................13 THE TORRES STRAIT TREATY ................................................................................................................................17 EXISTING REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS ........................................................................................................................18 Introduction......................................................................................................................................................18 Island Councils.................................................................................................................................................18 The Torres Shire Council .................................................................................................................................20 Island Coordinating Council............................................................................................................................21 Torres Strait Regional Authority......................................................................................................................24 ATSIC ...............................................................................................................................................................27 OTHER AGENCIES ..................................................................................................................................................28 COMMONWEALTH INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES FOR TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS LIVING ON THE MAINLAND ......29 Introduction......................................................................................................................................................29 ATSIC's General Representative Structures..................................................................................................... 30 TSIAB ...............................................................................................................................................................31 OTSIA...............................................................................................................................................................32 CHAPTER 3 – AUTONOMY AND ITS BENEFITS INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................34 WHAT IS GREATER AUTONOMY? ...........................................................................................................................34 Different Meanings of Greater Autonomy........................................................................................................34 Greater Autonomy for Whom? .........................................................................................................................37 A Future Goal - Territory Status?....................................................................................................................38 THE BENEFITS OF A GREATER DEGREE OF AUTONOMY .........................................................................................40 Returning a Right to Islanders .........................................................................................................................40 Preserving Torres Strait Culture......................................................................................................................41 Taking Responsibility for Decisions.................................................................................................................42 Improving Service Delivery..............................................................................................................................43 v CHAPTER 4 – A POSSIBLE FORM OF GREATER AUTONOMY FOR THE TORRES STRAIT REGION Introduction......................................................................................................................................................45 THE NEED FOR CHANGE ........................................................................................................................................46 The need to Simplify Structures........................................................................................................................46 The Possibility of Merging the ICC and the TSRA...........................................................................................47 Meetings and Members ....................................................................................................................................48 Non Indigenous Representation and Territory Status ......................................................................................50 A REGIONAL ASSEMBLY........................................................................................................................................50 A Joint Commonwealth-Queensland Body.......................................................................................................50 Regional Assembly Representation ..................................................................................................................52 Regional Assembly Functions ..........................................................................................................................55 Regional Assembly Powers ..............................................................................................................................59 Operations in Public ........................................................................................................................................59 Local Government Functions ...........................................................................................................................60 Regional Assembly Funds ................................................................................................................................62 Regional Assembly Administration ..................................................................................................................63 A Cultural Council ...........................................................................................................................................63 Links With Torres Strait Islanders Living on the Mainland .............................................................................65 Cooperation with Queensland State Government
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mediating the Imaginary and the Space of Encounter in the Papuan Gulf Dario Di Rosa
    7 Mediating the imaginary and the space of encounter in the Papuan Gulf Dario Di Rosa Writing about the 1935 Hides–O’Malley expedition in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the anthropologist Edward Schieffelin noted that Europeans ‘had a well-prepared category – “natives” – in which to place those people they met for the first time, a category of social subordination that served to dissipate their depth of otherness’.1 However, this category was often nuanced by Indigenous representations of neighbouring communities, producing significant effects in shaping Europeans’ understanding of their encounters. Analysing the narrative produced by Joseph Beete Jukes,2 naturalist on Francis Price Blackwood’s voyage of 1842–1846 on HMS Fly, I demonstrate the crucial role played by Torres Strait Islanders as mediators from afar of European encounters with Papuans along the coast of the Gulf of 1 Schieffelin and Crittenden 1991: 5. 2 Jukes 1847. As Beer (1996) shows, the viewing position of on-board scientists during geographical explorations was a particular one, led by their interests (see, from a different perspective, Fabian (2000) on the relevance of ‘natural history’ as episteme of accounts of explorations). This is a reminder of the high degree of social stratification within the ‘European’ micro-social community of the ship’s crew, a social hierarchy that shaped the texts available to the historians. Although he does not treat the problem of social stratification as such, see Thomas 1994 for a well-argued discussion about the different projects that guided various colonial actors. See also Dening 1992 for vivid case of power relations in the micro-social cosmos of a ship.
    [Show full text]
  • Your Labor Member in the Queensland Parliament
    YOUR LABOR MEMBER IN THE QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENT Cape Vork / Douglas / Cooktown / Mareeba: Torres Strait / NPA P: 1800816264 - Fax: 07 40312437 P: 1800802391 - Fax: 07 4069 1620 PO Box 2080, Cairns 4870 PO Box 437, Thursday Island 4875 E: [email protected] E: cook.th [email protected] Submission to the Queensland Competition Authority Level 19 12 Creek Street BRISBANE QLD 4001 REVIEW OF SUN WATER PRICING STRUCTURE Submission to the Queensland Competition Authority by Jason O'Brien MP Member for Cook, on behalf of a constituent who is a Sun Water user, requesting changes to the pricing policy of Sun Water to their customers holding pension concession cards who access sun water for their domestic use only. Under the present Sun Water tariff structure they are able to negotiate how much revenue could be collected from variable and fixed charges. My submission is that Sun Water should be free to offer a Pensioner Water Subsidy Scheme for eligible pensions to reduce the impact of increased water price increases. This concession could be in the form of a rebate similar to the rate rebate scheme which applies across the state off local government rates charges. Sun Water must have the ability to provide water services to the community at a reasonable cost taking into account the most effective way to utilise the resource for the community's benefit. To this end pensions accessing Sun Water's resource purely for domestic use should be considered in a wider public interest context. Prices should be cost reflective and take into account relevant public interest matters such as pensioners accessing their resource In conclusion I submit that Sun Water should be providing a Pensioner Water Subsidy Scheme and the Queensland Competition Authority should recognise this as a public interest issue.
    [Show full text]
  • Eddie Mabo and Others V. the State of Queensland, 1992. 1 the Significance of Court Recognition of Landrights in Australia
    Kunapipi Volume 14 Issue 1 Article 3 1992 Eddie Mabo and Others v. the State of Queensland, 1992. 1 The Significance of Court Recognition of Landrights in Australia Merete Falck Borch Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Borch, Merete Falck, Eddie Mabo and Others v. the State of Queensland, 1992. 1 The Significance of Court Recognition of Landrights in Australia, Kunapipi, 14(1), 1992. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol14/iss1/3 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Eddie Mabo and Others v. the State of Queensland, 1992. 1 The Significance of Court Recognition of Landrights in Australia Abstract In Australia, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have made much less use of the courts in the struggle for recognition of their rights to the land than, for example, the Indians in North America have. There have only been two major landrights cases in Australia; the first one, Milirrpum and others .v Nabalco and the Commonwealth, was brought by the Yolngu of north-eastern Arnhemland in 1969 in protest against the granting by the federal government of a mining lease to Nabalco on their land. The case was decided by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in 1971. The second case, Mabo and others v. the State of Queensland was an action initiated in 1982 by the Meriam people from the Torres Strait Islands to prevent an increase in government powers over their land.
    [Show full text]
  • CYI Submission on Aurukun Shire Council's Proposal for a Trial
    CYI submission on Aurukun Shire Council’s Proposal for a Trial Alcohol Event 24 May 2019 1 Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3 The Gap is at its widest in Aurukun ........................................................................................... 4 It hasn’t always been this way: an ignoble history .................................................................... 6 State Violence: the Queensland Government Takeover of Aurukun .................................... 6 The forced imposition of the alcohol canteen ....................................................................... 6 Two decades of grog: the cycle is embedded ........................................................................ 7 A shameful response .............................................................................................................. 9 Beattie and Bligh enable restrictions of alcohol .................................................................. 10 Alcohol restrictions have changed the trajectory .................................................................... 10 Reducing alcohol abuse must remain the top long-term priority ........................................... 11 Harmful policy drift—no clear policy ....................................................................................... 13 A plan is urgently required ......................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Torresstrait Islander Peoples' Connectiontosea Country
    it Islander P es Stra eoples’ C Torr onnec tion to Sea Country Formation and history of Intersection of the Torres Strait the Torres Strait Islands and the Great Barrier Reef The Torres Strait lies north of the tip of Cape York, Torres Strait Islanders have a wealth of knowledge of the marine landscape, and the animals which inhabit it. forming the northern most part of Queensland. Different marine life, such as turtles and dugong, were hunted throughout the Torres Strait in the shallow waters. Eighteen islands, together with two remote mainland They harvest fish from fish traps built on the fringing reefs, and inhabitants of these islands also embark on long towns, Bamaga and Seisia, make up the main Torres sea voyages to the eastern Cape York Peninsula. Although the Torres Strait is located outside the boundary of the Strait Islander communities, and Torres Strait Islanders Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, it is here north-east of Murray Island, where the Great Barrier Reef begins. also live throughout mainland Australia. Food from the sea is still a valuable part of the economy, culture and diet of Torres Strait Islander people who have The Torres Strait Islands were formed when the land among the highest consumption of seafood in the world. Today, technology has changed, but the cultural use of bridge between Australia and Papua New Guinea the Great Barrier Reef by Torres Strait Islanders remains. Oral and visual traditional histories link the past and the was flooded by rising seas about 8000 years ago. present and help maintain a living culture.
    [Show full text]
  • St Pauls (On Moa Island) - Local Plan Code
    7.2.13 St Pauls (on Moa Island) - local plan code Part 7: Local Plans St Pauls (on Moa Island) St Pauls (on Moa Island) Torres Strait Island Regional Council Planning Scheme Page 523 Torres Strait Island Regional Council Planning Scheme Page 524 Part 7: Local Plans St Pauls (on Moa Island) Papua New Guinea Saibai Ugar Boigu Stephen Island Erub Dauan Darnley Island Masig Yorke Island Iama Mabuyag Yam Island Mer Poruma Murray Island Coconut Island Badu Kubin Moa SStt PPaulsauls Warraber Sue Island Keriri Hammond Island Mainland Australia Mainland Australia Torres Strait Island Regional Council Planning Scheme Page 525 Editor’s Note – Community Snapshot Location Topography and Environment • St Pauls is located on the eastern side of Moa • Moa Island, like other islands in the group, is Island, which is part of the Torres Strait inner and a submerged remnant of the Great Dividing near western group of islands. St Paul’s nearest Range, now separated by sea. The island neighbour is Kubin, which is located on the comprises of largely of rugged, open forest and south-western side of Moa Island. Approximately is approximately 17km in diameter at its widest 15km from the outskirts of St Pauls. point. • Native flora and fauna that have been identified Population near St Pauls include fawn leaf nosed bat, • According to the most recent census, there were grey goshawk, emerald monitor, little tern, 258 people living in St Pauls as at August 2011, red goshawk, radjah shelduck, lipidodactylus however, the population is highly transient and primilus, bare backed fruit bat, torresian tube- this may not be an accurate estimate.
    [Show full text]
  • Part 16 Transport Infrastructure Plan
    Figure 7.3 Option D – Rail Line from Cairns to Bamaga Torres Strait Transport Infrastructure Plan Masig (Yorke) Island Option D - Rail Line from Cairns to Bamaga Major Roads Moa Island Proposed Railway St Pauls Kubin Waiben (Thursday) Island ° 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Kilometres Seisia Bamaga Ferry and passenger services as per current arrangements. DaymanPoint Shelburne Mapoon Wenlock Weipa Archer River Coen Yarraden Dixie Cooktown Maramie Cairns Normanton File: J:\mmpl\10303705\Engineering\Mapping\ArcGIS\Workspaces\Option D - Rail Line.mxd 29.07.05 Source of Base Map: MapData Sciences Pty Ltd Source for Base Map: MapData Sciences Pty Ltd 7.5 Option E – Option A with Additional Improvements This option retains the existing services currently operating in the Torres Strait (as per Option A), however it includes additional improvements to the connections between Horn Island and Thursday Island. Two options have been strategically considered for this connection: Torres Strait Transport Infrastructure Plan - Integrated Strategy Report J:\mmpl\10303705\Engineering\Reports\Transport Infrastructure Plan\Transport Infrastructure Plan - Rev I.doc Revision I November 2006 Page 91 • Improved ferry connections; and • Roll-on roll-of ferry. Improved ferry connections This improvement considers the combined freight and passenger services between Cairns, Bamaga and Thursday Island, with a connecting ferry service to OSTI communities. Possible improvements could include co-ordinating fares, ticketing and information services, and also improving safety, frequency and the cost of services. Roll-on roll-off ferry A roll-on roll-off operation between Thursday Island and Horn Island would provide significant benefits in moving people, cargo, and vehicles between the islands.
    [Show full text]
  • Australian Aborigines & Cultural Tourism
    University of Wollongong Research Online Centre for Multicultural Studies Working Papers Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts 1991 Australian Aborigines & cultural tourism: case studies of Aboriginal involvement in the tourist industry Julie Finlayson Recommended Citation Finlayson, Julie, Australian Aborigines & cultural tourism: case studies of Aboriginal involvement in the tourist industry, Centre for Multicultural Studies, University of Wollongong, Working Paper 15, 1991, 127. http://ro.uow.edu.au/cmsworkpapers/13 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Australian Aborigines & cultural tourism: case studies of Aboriginal involvement in the tourist industry Abstract The principal focus of this report has been with issues of direct concern to Aboriginal people and communities involved with cultural tourism. Report recommendations stress the need for greater consideration of Aboriginal cultural perspectives in the development and implementation of government policies. A central question to emerge from the study is whether cultural tourism is merely a novel angle within current developments in tourism and enjoying a good deal of attention and enthusiasm from tourist organisations and operators, or whether it is primarily a context for commercial enterprise development by Aboriginal people? A related matter is the question of what purpose Aboriginal ventures in cultural tourism are designed to serve and in whose interests they are developed? Answers to these issues were not always obvious to Aboriginal people involved in the ventures surveyed nor was it necessarily apparent to some of the non-Aboriginal participants. The purpose of Aboriginal tourism ventures is problematic in public policy and in bureaucratic practice.
    [Show full text]
  • Navigating Boundaries: the Asian Diaspora in Torres Strait
    CHAPTER TWO Tidal Flows An overview of Torres Strait Islander-Asian contact Anna Shnukal and Guy Ramsay Torres Strait Islanders The Torres Strait Islanders, Australia’s second Indigenous minority, come from the islands of the sea passage between Queensland and New Guinea. Estimated to number at most 4,000 people before contact, but reduced by half by disease and depredation by the late-1870s, they now number more than 40,000. Traditional stories recount their arrival in waves of chain migration from various islands and coastal villages of southern New Guinea, possibly as a consequence of environmental change.1 The Islanders were not traditionally unified, but recognised five major ethno-linguistic groups or ‘nations’, each specialising in the activities best suited to its environment: the Miriam Le of the fertile, volcanic islands of the east; the Kulkalgal of the sandy coral cays of the centre; the Saibailgal of the low mud-flat islands close to the New Guinea coast; the Maluilgal of the grassy, hilly islands of the centre west; and the Kaurareg of the low west, who for centuries had intermarried with Cape York Aboriginal people. They spoke dialects of two traditional but unrelated languages: in the east, Papuan Meriam Mir; in the west and centre, Australian Kala Lagaw Ya (formerly called Mabuiag); and they used a sophisticated sign language to communicate with other language speakers. Outliers of a broad Melanesian culture area, they lived in small-scale, acephalous, clan-based communities and traded, waged war and intermarried with their neighbours and the peoples of the adjacent northern and southern mainlands.
    [Show full text]
  • Between Australia and New Guinea-Ecological and Cultural
    Geographical Review of Japan Vol. 59 (Ser. B), No. 2, 69-82, 1986 Between Australia and New Guinea-Ecological and Cultural Diversity in the Torres Strait with Special Reference to the Use of Marine Resources- George OHSHIMA* The region between lowland Papua and the northern tip of the Australian continent presents a fascinating panorama of ecological, cultural and socio-economic diversity. In lowland Papua and on its associated small islands such as Saibai, Boigu and Parama, a combination of coastal forests and muddy shores dominates the scene, whereas the Torres Strait Islands of volcanic and limestone origin, together with raised coral islands and their associated reef systems present a range of island ecosystems scattered over a broad territory some 800km in extent. Coralline habitats extend south wards to the Cape York Peninsula and some parts of Arnhem Land. Coupled with those ecological diversities within a relatively small compass across the Torres Strait, the region has evoked important questions concerning the archaeological and historical dichotomy between Australian hunter-gatherers and Melanesian horticulturalists. This notion is also reflectd in terms of its complex linguistic, ethnic and political composition. In summarizing the present day cultural diversity of the region, at least three major components emerge: hunter-gatherers in the Australian Northern Territory, Australian islanders and tribal Papuans. Historically, these groups have interacted in complex ways and this has resulted in an intricate intermingling of cultures and societies. Such acculturation processes operating over thousands of years make it difficult to isolate meaning ful trends in terms of "core-periphery" components of the individual cultures.
    [Show full text]
  • The Boomerang Effect. the Aboriginal Arts of Australia 19 May - 7 January 2018 Preview 18 May 2017 at 6Pm
    MEG Musée d’ethnographie de Genève Press 4 may 2017 The Boomerang Effect. The Aboriginal Arts of Australia 19 May - 7 January 2018 Preview 18 May 2017 at 6pm White walls, neon writing, clean lines: the MEG’s new exhibition «The Boomerang Effect. The Aboriginal Arts of Australia» welcomes its visitors in a space evocative of a contemporary art gallery. Here the MEG unveils one of its finest collections and reveals the wealth of indigenous Australia's cultural heritage. Visiting this exhibition, we understand how attempts to suppress Aboriginal culture since the 18th century have ended up having the opposite of their desired effect. When James Cook landed in Australia, in 1770, he declared the country to be «no one’s land» (terra nullius), as he recognized no state authority there. This justified the island's colonization and the limitless spoliation of its inhabitants, a medley of peoples who had lived there for 60,000 years, societies which up until today have maintained a visible and invisible link with the land through a vision of the world known as the Dreaming or Dreamtime. These mythological tales recount the creation of the universe as well as the balanced and harmonious relation between all the beings inhabiting it. It is told that, in ancestral times, the Djan’kawu sisters peopled the land by naming the beings and places and then lying down near the roots of a pandanus tree to give birth to sacred objects. It is related that the Dätiwuy clan and its land was made by a shark called Mäna.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Heritage Series
    VOLUME 4 PART 2 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM CULTURAL HERITAGE SERIES 17 OCTOBER 2008 © The State of Queensland (Queensland Museum) 2008 PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone 06 7 3840 7555 Fax 06 7 3846 1226 Email [email protected] Website www.qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 1440-4788 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the Editor in Chief. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed at the Queensland Museum web site A Queensland Government Project Typeset at the Queensland Museum CHAPTER 4 HISTORICAL MUA ANNA SHNUKAL Shnukal, A. 2008 10 17: Historical Mua. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, Cultural Heritage Series 4(2): 61-205. Brisbane. ISSN 1440-4788. As a consequence of their different origins, populations, legal status, administrations and rates of growth, the post-contact western and eastern Muan communities followed different historical trajectories. This chapter traces the history of Mua, linking events with the family connections which always existed but were down-played until the second half of the 20th century. There are four sections, each relating to a different period of Mua’s history. Each is historically contextualised and contains discussions on economy, administration, infrastructure, health, religion, education and population. Totalai, Dabu, Poid, Kubin, St Paul’s community, Port Lihou, church missions, Pacific Islanders, education, health, Torres Strait history, Mua (Banks Island).
    [Show full text]