‘Ina ngalmun lagau malu’ (This Part of the Sea Belongs to Us): Politics, Sea rights and Fisheries Co-management in Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait) Annick Thomassin Department of Anthropology McGill University, Montreal May 2019 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Annick Thomassin 2019 Table of Contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................. VI RÉSUMÉ .............................................................................................................................................................. VIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................................... X ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................... XIII CHAPTER ONE: PROBING THE (ANTI)POLITICS OF FISHERIES CO-MANAGEMENT ................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 CO-MANAGEMENT IN CONTEXT: THE TORRES STRAIT ...................................................................................... 4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY........................................................................................................................... 6 MODE OF INQUIRY, ETHICS AND CONTEXT .................................................................................................... 8 Methodology 8 Ethical considerations 12 Setting the scene 14 THESIS SYNOPSIS .................................................................................................................................. 23 CHAPTER TWO: POLITICS OF CO-MANAGEMENT: THEORIES AND CONCEPTS ...................................................... 25 POLITICAL ECOLOGY .............................................................................................................................. 25 A CRITICAL OVERVIEW OF WESTERN BIO-ECONOMIC APPROACHES TO FISHERIES MANAGEMENT ............................... 31 Competing tenure regimes 36 Small scale fisheries and conventional approach to fisheries management 38 Neoliberal forces, anti-politics and resistance 41 PARADIGM ‘SHIFT’: TOWARDS CO-MANAGED FISHERIES ................................................................................. 47 Defining co-management 51 On participation and empowerment 56 INDIGENOUS ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS AND THEIR INTEGRATION WITHIN CO-MANAGEMENT ...................... 63 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER THREE: BIPOTAIM, A GLIMPSE AT THE MASIGALGAL AND KULKALGAL PRE-COLONIAL SETTLEMENT HISTORY............................................................................................................................................................... 74 FIRST ENCOUNTERS WITH EUROPEANS ....................................................................................................... 76 ii CUSTOMARY LAND AND MARINE TENURE ................................................................................................... 77 PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIALITY, GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL ORGANISATION .......................................................... 79 A LIFEWORLD BASED ON MOVEMENT ........................................................................................................ 83 ASPECTS OF BIPOTAIM KULKALGAL FISHING ACTIVITIES AND PRESERVATION OF SEA PRODUCTS ................................ 84 TRADING RELATIONSHIPS ....................................................................................................................... 87 Extensive trading networks 87 Trading with the newcommers 91 EXPLORATION AND APPROPRIATION: MAKING TORRES STRAIT A TERRA AND MARE NULLIUS ................................... 93 CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 94 CHAPTER FOUR: COLONIAL ENCOUNTERS AND ARTICULATION OF MASIGALGAL CONTEMPORANEITY ............... 96 REPERCUSSIONS AND RESPONSES TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE COLONIAL FRONTIER ........................................... 98 A portrait of the marine industry 98 Racial stratification of the fisheries and emergence of a ‘hybrid zone’ 100 COLONIAL CONSTRUCTION OF ISLANDERS AND ISLANDERS’ RESPONSES: THE LMS AND QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT .. 107 London Missionary Society (LMS) 107 Colonial administration of the region 110 THE EMERGENCE OF AN ISLANDER-SPECIFIC ALTERNATIVE; THE COMPANY BOATS ............................................... 116 A space for Islanders’ agency 119 Emergence of an Islander model of economic participation 121 Recasting Islanders initiatives as Islander failures: biopolitics in action 122 THE 1936 TORRES STRAIT MARITIME STRIKE: FIRST CONCERTED ATTEMPT TO SHIFT ISLANDERS/GOVERNMENT POWER RELATIONSHIP ................................................................................................................................... 125 The birth of a pan-Islander identity 130 After the Strike: amitaim and the quest for citizenship 131 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 134 CHAPTER FIVE: THE POST-LUGGER ERA: RE-INVENTING TORRES STRAIT FISHERIES AND ISLANDERS- GOVERNMENT RELATIONS ................................................................................................................................. 136 CAUGHT IN BETWEEN: PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S INDEPENDENCE, BORDER ISSUES AND TORRES STRAIT TREATY ............ 141 iii The Torres Strait Treaty 144 Papuan perspectives and transborder relations 151 REGAINING CONTROL OVER TORRES STRAIT LANDS AND SEAS ........................................................................ 152 Shattering an ‘Australian silence’: Mabo and the end of terra nullius 152 Secessionist Movement 158 SETTING THE TERMS OF SELF-DETERMINATION AND CONTROL OVER MARINE TERRITORIES .................................... 161 Drawing inspiration and support from abroad 164 Erasing Mare Nullius 165 CONCLUSION: A SLOW JOURNEY TOWARDS AUTONOMY AND REPOSSESSION OF SEA RIGHTS ................................. 173 PART TWO A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF TORRES STRAIT FISHERIES MANAGEMENT ........................................... 176 CHAPTER SIX: IN TUNE WITH THE WINDS, THE SEA AND THE PEOPLE, INSIGHT FROM MASIG FISHERS’ QUOTIDIAN ............................................................................................................................................... 176 LIVING AND FISHING MASIG’S MARINE DOMAIN: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF MASIG CONTEMPORARY SMALL-BOAT FISHERIES SYSTEM ............................................................................................................................... 181 Commercial fishing within Masig’s maritime domain 182 In tune with the sea, the winds and the people 217 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 231 CHAPTER SEVEN: FISHING PASINS AND LIFE PROJECTS ...................................................................................... 233 INHERITED BOUNDARIES: MASIG’S MARITIME DOMAIN ............................................................................... 234 Masig customary marine tenure regime 237 Exclusive zones, shared territories and the creation of relationships 242 RELATIONAL ‘HYBRID’ ECONOMY ........................................................................................................... 249 Masig small-boat fishery system in their relational hybrid economy 254 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 259 CHAPTER EIGHT: FISHING AND HUNTING AS MANAGEMENT: THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF MANAGING, TAKING CARE OF AND SPEAKING FOR MASIG SALTWATER DOMAIN, RESOURCES AND SMALL-BOAT FISHERIES ..................... 261 OWNER-FISHERS AS MANAGERS ............................................................................................................. 262 MASIG CONTEMPORARY MARINE ESTATE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ................................................................... 265 Internal management and fishing etiquette 265 iv Participation in mainstream monitoring efforts and development of a community-based turtle and dugong management plan 272 CONTROLLING OUTSIDERS’ ENTRIES AND USES ........................................................................................... 273 Controlling the Australian TVH (Transferrable Vessel Holder) sector 276 Managing the knowledge, managing the management 282 REPRESENTATING MASIG’S FISHERS AND COMMUNITY IN MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES ....................................... 289 CONCLUSIONS: MASIG VOICES THROUGH THE SEASCAPE .............................................................................. 295 CHAPTER NINE: ‘CO’-MANAGING TORRES STRAIT FISHERIES: PARTNERSHIP OR COLLISION OF ROOT METAPHORS? .................................................................................................................................................... 297 THE POWER OF A STRUCTURE: