MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM BRISBANE VOLUME 34 1 MARCH,1994 : PART 2 CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT DAVID LAWRENCE Lawrence, D. 1994:03 01: Customary exchange across Torres Strait. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 34(2):241-446. Brisbane. ISSN 0079-8835. Customary exchange across Torres Strait is examined through a study of documentary sources, oral history and museum collections. The study includes. an analysis of the material culture of exchange illustrating the variety of artefacts of subsistence, omamentation and dress, recreation, ceremony and dance, and warfare. The idea that customary exchange across Torres Suait was a system of fixed, formalised, point-to-point trade routes is contested. This misconception, based on Haddon (1890, 1901-1935), McCarthy (1939) and Moore (1979), has arisen from reliance on historical documentary sources. By contrast, oral history from Torres Strait Islanders and coastal Papuans suggests that customary exchange was flexible and open, tied to changing social, political and cultural factors and operated within the framework of a dynamic Melanesian economic system. Customary exchange is re-evaluated and the paths and patterns of exchange are restructured. Pattems of customary exchange fonned as a result of separate linkages between individuals and groups and served to distribute scarce resources between the Islander, Papuan and Aboriginal peoples across a region of considerable geographical, ecological and cultural diversity, Exchange is therefore interpreted in the context of the cultural and ecological discreteness of human groups within the Torres Strait region. This study also investigates the extent to which customary exchange exists in the contem- porary penod and the implications of recent legal and administrative decisions such as the Torres Strait Treaty. (7) Customary exchange, oral history, Torres Strait, south coastal Papua, inter-island trade. David Lawrence, Material Culture Unit, James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, Queensland 48] 1; present address:- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, P.O. Box 1379, Townsville, Queensland 4810. 25 July 1992. This study examines the material culture of customary exchange, across Torres Strait, within the framework of a dynamic Melanesian ex- change system. Both indigenous and European perceptions of customary exchange are presented followed by assessment of the similarities and differences. Misconceptions conceming the na- ture of customary exchange in the Torres Strait region have arisen from the continued reliance on historical documentary sources. It will be shown that these sources may have distorted the true character of customary exchange across this diverse region. Oral testimony from the Torres Strait Islander and Papuan people and examina- tion of the objects of exchange, which are essen- tially material evidence of customary exchange, are important elements. Change in the customary exchange system may also be evidenced by changes to the matenal culture of exchange. A further objective was to determine how dynamic and resiliant was cus- lomary exchange in a region of Papua New Guinea{PNG) and northern Australia thatis often overlooked and regarded as being on the political and cultural periphery. The Tortes Strait/Fly es- tuary region is culturally diverse, and politically divided and has been subjected to different pat- tems of colonial subjugalion, However, cus- tomary exchange has served, along with marnage and warfare in the pre-colonial period, to in- tegrate the region, This integration has enabled the small scale communities of the region to balance unequal resource allocation, for the es- sence of exchange is circulation of both material and non-material items, Historical sources recording contact with Is- landers commenced with a brief description of outrigger canoes off Yam Island by Luis Baes de Torres in 1606 (Hilder,1980:76). Sustained con- tact, following the yoyages of William Bligh in 1796 (Bligh, 1976) and Matthew Flinders in 1802 (Flinders, 1814), began in the mid-ninetecath century with the scientific voyages of the surycy ships sent to charl a safe passage from the MEMOIRS OF THE (QUEENSLAND MUSEUM BRISBANE © Queensland Museum PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone 06 7 3840 7555 Fax 06 7 3846 1226 Email qmlib@qm.qld.gov.au Website www.qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 0079-8835 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Afemoirs of the Queensland Museum maybe teproduced 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 242 Australian colonies to the markets and ports of India and Asia (Jukes,1847; Macgillivray, 1852; Allen & Corris,1977; Moore, 1979). Following missionary activity and estab- lishment of the London Missionary Society on Damley Island in 1871, commercial fishing and pearling began. European commercial activity led to exploration of the Fly estuary and the SW coast of PNG by adventurers (Chester,1870; D’ Albertis,1881) and missionaries (Macfarlane, 1875/76; Gill, 1874a,b; Chalmers, 1903a,b; Bax- ter-Riley,1925). Colonial administration estab- lished at Mabudawan in 1891 and then at Daru in 1895, encouraged field officers (Jiear, 1904/05; Beaver, 1920; Austen,1925) to report ethno- graphic data so that the colonial government could exercise control over the various ethnic groups inhabiting this isolated region. This rich source of historical documentary evidence may be compared with oral evidence from indigenous peoples. The most important work on the social, economic and cultural life of Torres Strait Is- landers is by Haddon (1901-1935) who led the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits in 1898. The Finnish anthropologist and sociologist Gunnar Landtman, a protégé of Haddon, noted that extensive ‘trade’ had been carried on be- tween the Kiwai region and the Torres Strait Islands (Landtman,1927: 213-216). He assumed a degree of resource specialization among various ethnic groups inhabiting coastal and riverine areas and collected oral evidence of inter-ethnic relations, kinship connections and population movements (Landtman, 1917) as well as artefacts which he documented and catalogued himself (Landtman, 1933). Landtman (1927:215) could see no clear difference between ‘actual commerce’ and the ‘exchange of friendly pres- ents’ and remarked (Landtman,1927:205) that socially sponsored journeys, which originated from gift exchange between visitor and host, as- sumed, in most cases, the ‘character of regular trading enterprises’. Both these points will re- quire further clarification. Oral evidence of exchange relations, inter-eth- nic contact and coastal population movements between Torres Strait Islanders and coastal Papuans has survived most strongly among the coastal people of PNG. There are many historical and cultural reasons for this. The islands of the Torres Strait were, by the 1860s, home to many nationalities. The intermingling of people, as a result of prolonged impact of colonial administra- MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM tion and commercial exploitation of the Torres Strait, has served to alter the cultural and economic focus of the Islander people. Political pressure imposed from outside resulted in the enforcement of legal and quarantine regulations across the Torres Strait which inhibited the free movement of goods and people across the Australian-PNG border. This had a detrimental effect on Islander-Papuan relations and, despite the ratification of the Torres Strait Treaty in 1985, which formally recognized indigenous rights to free movement and exchange, the political, social and economic separation of Islanders and Papuans is now almost complete. Of the multitude of islands in Torres Strait, only 16 are inhabited, although use of uninhabited islands, either permanently or temporarily, has occurred during recent time. The SW coast of PNG extends from Parama Island in the east to the entrance of the Mai Kussa, opposite the island of Boigu. The triangular Fly estuary extends from Parama Island in the south and Dibini Island in the north- east to Somogi Island at the entrance of the Fly River proper. The estuary contains c.40 large islands and numerous tidal islets. The largest island in the estuary is Kiwai Island, the original home of the Kiwai-speaking people, some of whom now dwell in coastal villages along the northern (Manowetti) bank and the western (Dudi) bank of the Fly estuary. Kiwai-speaking people also live along the SW coast (Fig. 1). “Western Province’ refers to the political region of PNG immediately to the north of the Torres Strait and will be used in preference to the earlier names: ‘Western District’ and ‘Western Divisi- on’. Preliminary fieldwork involving two trips by small boat, principally to the Torres Strait islands of Moa, Badu, Boigu, Saibai, Dauan, Masig, Mer, _ Erb and Ugar, was undertaken in 1984. This was followed by two extended periods of fieldwork, during 1985, in PNG. The first trip, by boat, commenced in Buji, opposite Boigu, and was completed at Kadawa, opposite Daru. The second trip included journeys by canoe and on foot to villages visited during the first trip. As well as an inland walking trip from Masingara to Kulalae, I also made a long trip on a hired double-outrigger canoe from Kadawa into the Fly estuary. During this canoe journey, coastal Kiwai villages along the Dudi bank, as well as villages on Kiwai Is- land, were visited. Fieldwork ended in Madiri in the Fly estuary. A short trip by light plane was also made to the inland village of Wipim. Wim MATERIAL CULTURE OF TRADE, TORRES STRAIT TO PNG and lamega at the headwaters of the Onomo River were reached by foot. Field research con- centrated on recording. on tape, oral testimonies of interaction, exchange and population move- ments actoss the Torres Strait_ Oral evidence was first recorded in the vernacular language, this was then replayed to the storyteller for possible altera- tion or correction. A translation into English was then made in the presence of the storyteller using local English-speaking men as translators. In many cases this resulted in additional information being given by the storyteller and/or other lis- tenets, ‘Material culture’ may be defined as ‘the tan- gible phenomena of a human society that are the purposive products of learnt patremns that are net instinctive’ (Reynolds,1984a:4), Material objects such as canoes. shells, drums. bows, arraws, masks, headdresses, costumes and omaments, Moved across the Torres Strait often over considerable distances, Exchange in material goods was complemented by the move- ment of non-material items such as songs, dances and rituals. Women, as willing partners in mar- riage or as unwilling prizes of raiding and war- fare, also passed from one ethnic group to another. Exchange was facilitated by means of canoes, the largest of which, the double-outngger sailing canoe, was the most important object of customary exchange. I shall contest the idea, long beld, that cus- tomary exchange across the Torres Strait and Fly estuary consisted of a complex system of fixed and linear trade-routes. | shall show that pattems of customary exchange formed as a result of separate linkages between individuals and groups and were subject to considerable change due to extemal and internal factors, ‘Exchange’ is taken to mean the ‘reciprocal traffic, exchange or movement of goexis th peaceful human agency’ (Renfrew,1969:152) and is a transaction involving twa transactors and two objects, The two transactors may be in- dividuals or groups and the objects may be alike or unalike. Separation of commodity exchange which ‘establishes quantitative relationships be- tween the objects transacted’ from gift exchange which ‘establishes personal qualitative relation- ships between the subjects transacting” (Gregory 1982:41) is difficult in Melanesian economic relations. Ambiguity is the key to Melanesian economics for, as Gregory (1982:116) observed: ‘A thing is now a gift, now a commadity, depend- ing on the social context af the transaction’. Exchange served not only the economic func- 243 tion of circulation of goods and resources, it also fulfilled a cultural role as a disseminator of ntual and myths, and through kinship and ‘trade partnership’ relations, served to integrate scat- tered conumunities. For these reasons exchange” is used in preference to the more common terms ‘trade’ or ‘traffic’. Where ‘trade’, or ‘trading’ or ‘traffic’, was used by an author this terminology will remain, but will be marked by quotation marks. The terms “canoe trade” and ‘canoe traffic’ (Landtman,1927:213; Haddon,1904, V:296, 1908,V1:186), were attempts to incor- porate the concepts of exchange for canoes and exchange by means of canoes. GEOGRAPHY AND PREHISTORY OF THE REGION The Torres Strait is defined (Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence,1976:xiii) as ‘Generally that area of sea and islands lying between Cape York ard the Papuan coast bounded as follaws: in the east by the northeast extremity of the Greai Barrier Reef and thence in anorthwesterly direction to include Bramble Cay terminating at Brampton Point on the Papucn coast; in the west by Parliament Point om the Papuan coast; and thence south to 12° § latitude including Turu Cay and Cook, Merkara and Proudfoot Shoals,’ This teef-strewn passage between Cape York and southwest PNG, west of the Fly River, is only a little over 150 km wide but contains more than 100 islands, coral reefs and cays between 141° 15° and 144° 20’ E longitude and 9° 20° and 10° 45° S$ latitude (Fig. 1}. The Torres Strait is a shallow shelf, 10-15m deep, along longitude 142° 15° E which ap- proximates the position of the land bridge of intrusive igneous rocks that was drowned by postglacial transgression. The bridge was drowned during the early Holocene (8500-6500 years B.P.); according to Barham & Harris (1983: $31,536), if the postglacial transgression of the continental shelf by the sea was completed in two to three thousand years the present configuration of islands would have been reached by 6000 B.P. Torres Strait islands may be divided into four groups: an eastem group of high Pleistocene islands of basalt and tuffs; a central group of low carbonate sand islands; a western group of high islands of Upper Carboniferous acid volcanic and granitic rocks, which form part of the pre- Mesozoic basement Cape York-Oriomo Ridge (Willmott,1972:6); and a top” western group of 244 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM Ve PAPUA NEW GUINEA BAMU ESTUARY Ww, DIBIRI = DOMIRI = ~Suiiost a co > WABUDA BITURI aes EMD RIVER aes ABA Se URA & FLY ESTUARY ! MIBU ORIOMO + SUI RIVER BINATURI KADAWA? C3 PARAMA RIVER KATAT Al ee MAI KUSSA PAHOTURI TURETURE aie RIVER MAWATTA BOBO SOUTHWEST COAST BOIG MABUDAWAN SIGABADURU 7 coe SAIBAI © UGAR (Stephen Is.) DAUAN Ss i BURU (Turnagain Is.) Ri 5 DHAMUDH @ ERUB (Darnley Is.) (Dalrymple Is.) TORRES ° STRAIT GEBAR < MASIG (Yorke ls. % = TUDU (Warrior Is.) 5 ead MUKUVA © ZEGEY , Pa (Cap Is.) «2 YAM (Dungeness Is.) @ 2 MER > ABUING a, ¢ AWRIDH DAUAR ® waleR SASI PURUMA (Murray Is.) BADU (Long Is.) (Coconut Is.) 4 oO o o : (3) o WARRABER (Sue Is.) » “4 7 NAGI o (Mt. Ernest Is.) " 8 °o co) ofp we 'WAYBEN Cy Thursday Is.) © > MURI (Mt. Adolphus Is.) MURALAG FAL g* CAPE YORK (Prince of ie ys Wales Is.) ¢ $ 0 10 20 30 40 50 CAPE YORK PENINSULA a KILOMETRES AUSTRALIA a. — FIG. 1. Map of Torres Strait, SW Coast of PNG and Fly estuary with local and English names for major islands. CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT 24 low mangrove mud and peat islands overlying coralline platforms (Barham & Harns,1983:533). Sixteen are inhabited at present (Appendix A). The wesiem pre-Mesozoic islands, Badu, Moa, Mabuiag, Wayben (Fig, 2), Kerri, Muralag and Narupay have-steep hill slopes and poor soils with broad plains of clay silt which tum to fine dustin the dry season. The sandy, acidic soils are covered with patches of scrub and forest. The istands are surrounded by mudflats, mangroves and fresh- water swamps, The surrounding seas and fringing reefs support a variety of sea life, including dugong and turtle. The ‘top’ western islands, Saibai (Fig. 3) and Boigu, are the alluvial accumulation of organic, intertidal and mangrove muds from PNG rivers deposited on reef limestones. These islands, 2— 3m above Mean Sea Level, are fringed with mangroves and have broad intenor swamps sub- ject to seasonal drying and flooding. Formerly, parts of the higher internal lands were cultivated by the inhabitants in drained plots, and water was obtained from wells, Fish and crabs are plentiful, but dugong and turtles are fewer than in clearer waters to the south. Dauan, with geographical characteristics of the western group, ts also in- eluded in the ‘top" western group. The central islands, Yam, Masig (Fig. 4), War- ruber and Puruma, are low sandy cays formed by wave action over platform reef limestone and are generally 3-Gm above Mean Sea Level, with some patches of mangroves. Vegetation is scrub- by but large areas of coconuts have been planted. Extensive fringing reefs contain abundant fish as ' Aa FIG, 2. Wayben { Thursday Is.) with Narupay (Horn Is.) in distance. (Photo: W. Gladstone} w life. Yam Island, the easternmost. has geographi- cal charactenstics of the western group. The high, volcanic, eastern islands, Mer (Fig. 5), Erub, and Ugar have fertile, brownish soil and steep well-vegetated slopes with some exposed rock, These islands show signs of deforestation and soil erosion. Their wide reefs support a variety of sea life including many sharks and mys. Sea grass beds and dugongs are scarce but turtles are plentiful, The dominant climatic feature is the seasonal alternation of wet (December-April) and dry (May-November) periods. The wet season occurs during the lime of the north-west monsoon whereas the dry season corresponds to the period of the south-east trade winds. Vegetation (Willmott,!972:3) of the coastal region of PNG consists of grasslands, open savanna woodlands with patches of rainforest and dense palm forests. The high western islands of Torres Strait support sparse eucalypt forest and some areas of montane forest, while the eastern istands are covered in dense grass, patches of rainforest and coconut groves. The central is- lands, particularly east of Warrior Reef support coarse grass, low scrub and coconul groves, Savanna country contains a range of vegelalion types from grassland to dense woodlands, with a more or less continuous ground layer of grasses beneath or between trees (Harvis.1980: 5) and *... the Intermediate Tropical er Savanna Zorie cart be defined as that part of the tropical world that experiences a dry season of 2.5 to 7.5 monihs ...’ (Harmns,1980:3). The Torres Strait islands and 246 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM FIG. 3. Saibai village, Saibai. neighbouring coastal PNG are within this clas- sification. The Western Province of PNG is the largest but most sparsely populated district in the country. It is bordered on the west by Irian Jaya, on the north by West Sepik (Sanduan) province and on the FIG, 4. Masig (Yorke Is.) village. northeast by the Southern Highlands and Gulf Provinces. To the south, the Western Province and Australia share a political border in the Torres Strait. Most of the Western Province is a vast lowland area with high mountains only in the north and northwest. The Oriomo Plateau extends west from the mouth of the Fly River to the Irian Jaya CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT 247 FIG. 5. Mer (Murray Is.) village. border, being defined in the north by the Fly River and in the south by a narrow coastal plain. The coastal plain is featureless (Fig. 6), except for the hill at Mabudawan (59m). The plains are flooded during the wet and desiccated during the dry. The Bensbach, Morehead, Pahoturi, Binaturi, and Oriomo Rivers are widely spaced and slow flow- ing. Tidal inlets of the Wassi Kussa and Mai Kussa create Strachan Island. The coastal plain, in places less than 3km wide, and 3m above Mean Sea Level is subject to seasonal and tidal flooding, the narrow sandy beach being the only dry part in some heavy wet seasons (Fig. 7). Shallow coastal waters are muddy and contain reefs, mudbanks and sandbars. The mouths of the Fly and Bamu Rivers consist of numerous channels separating low is- lands which are mostly uninhabited tidal swamps. The Fly River contains many obstacles to naviga- tion. Constantly changing shoals and floating tree trunks in muddy waters plague river journeys. Rapid rise and fall of floodwaters and an unpre- dictable tidal bore in the lower Fly River, espe- cially during new and full moons at the southeast season, are also hazards to the inhabitants. Soil on the Oriomo Plateau is generally poor. FIG. 6. Kadawa village, PNG. Daru Is. in left background. 248 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM FIG. 7. Wabuda, Fly estuary, PNG. Small fishing village located on sandy point. and on the coastal plain is poorly drained and clayey. However, some good gardening soil ex- ists along the narrow beach ridges and inland along rivers and swamps (Fig. 8). Vegetation inland in PNG is generally savanna grasslands similar to Cape York. The coastal swamps contain nipa palm, mangrove and sago palm and are bordered by areas of dense wood- lands. Cape York and southwest PNG are joined by a pre-Mesozoic basement ridge, known as the Cape York-Oriomo Ridge, which extends from Cape York to Mabudawan on the PNG coast (Willmott, 1973; Willmottet al.,1969; Whitaker & Willmott, 1969). These Carboniferous-Permian volcanic rocks are mostly rhyolite welded tuffs, subor- dinate dacite or dellenite welded tuff, ag- glomerate, rhyolite, andesite and volcanic breccia (Willmott, 1973:102). Postdating these is the Per- mian Badu Granite, exposed on the islands of the western side of the Torres Strait north of 10°30°S and west of 142° 50’E and in the hill at Mabudawan. Lapping onto these Palaeozoic rocks from the south are Mesozoic sediments of the Carpentaria Basin. In the area south of the Fly River, Mesozoic sediments are overlain by Cainozoic limestones, and Pliocene and Pleistocene mudstones, sandstones and gravels (Whitaker & Willmott, 1969:535). River alluvium, sand, dune sand and sand cays are exposed along the southwest coast. Pleistocene ash cones (now tuffs) in the eastern CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT BAPUA NEW GUINES iin GAML LS Tuk Jide nati " WESTERN PROVINCE FIG. 8. Map of SW Coast, PNG, part of Torres Strait belong to the Maer Volcanics and form the islands of Mer, Erub, Ugar, and Daru and Bramble Cay. Land bridged the Sahul Shelf linking PNG to Australia, across Torres Strait and the Arafura Sea, between 80000-10000 years B.P. (Bellwood,1979:37). The full evidence of human settlement in the area now under the sea between Australia and PNG is unknown. The last land bridge between Australia and New Guinea was across Torres Strait, and when this was breached, many islands were left in the gap (Golson, 1972: 379). The breach was dated at 8000 B.P. (White & O’Connell,1982:171) or between 6500 and 8000 B.P. (Bellwood,1979:62). Thus, by 4000-5000 B.P., Torres Strait had come close to its present configuration. The shallow seabed, gently in- clined to the west, would have been formed by small rivers and swamps draining from the north and south. Meandering rivers and numerous swamps would have provided subsistence for human groups (Moore,1979:308). Flooding of SOUTHWEST COAST rf TORRES STRAIT the Shelf would have caused subsistence dwellers to move to the higher land or back up the river courses towards PNG or Australia. Assumptions based on studies of early sites are that humans have been in the PNG and Australian area since the Pleistocene (see Bellwood,1979:62). Prior to the breach, the Torres Strait region formed a plateau which separated fluvial systems draining westward into the Arafura Sea basin and eastward to the Coral Sea basin (Barham & Harris,1983: 543), Hypothetical reconstructions of Torres Strait prehistory have been outlined by Golson (1972), Vanderwal (1973), Moore (1979), and Barham & Harris (1983) and archaeological investigations are continuing (Harris, Barham & Ghaleb,1985). Any hypothesis regarding prehistoric events in the Torres Strait region that might have led to the ethnographic situation as found at first European contact must draw on the findings of other dis- ciplines (Moore,1979:308). 250 LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL GROUPS Based on the work of Ray & Haddon (1893) and Ray (1907) Torres Strait has been considered a linguistic barrier between PNG and Australia. However, linguistic influences appear to have crossed in both directions. Ray & Haddon (1893: 494-496) stated that the Miriam (now Meriam- mer) language was spoken on Mer, Erub and Ugar. Saibai language (now called Kala Lagaw Ya) was spoken on western islands from Cape York to within a mile or two of the New Guinea mainland (Ray & Haddon, 1893:464). Ray stated that the ‘chief divisions of the tribe’ in the western islands were: Kauralaig on Muralug and Moa, Gumulaig on Badu and Mabuiag, Saibailaig on Saibai, Dauan and Boigu, and Kulkalaig on Nagi, Tudu and Masig. Ray & Haddon (1893:465) also noted that between these groups the language varied with both dialectal and pronunciation dif- ferences. Meriam-mer belongs to the Papuan (non- Austronesian) language family, the Eastern Trans-Fly Family (of the subphylum level Trans- Fly Stock of the Trans-New Guinea Phylum). Wurm (1972:349) stated that Meriam is struc- turally a typical Papuan language related to Bine, Gidra and Gizra. Its closest geographical proximity is to Southern Kiwai language and, while structurally and lexically Gizra is the closest linguistic relative of Meriam (Wurm, 1972:348), the simplified phonology of the Meriam language is the result of the strong in- fluence of Southern Kiwai language (Fig. 9). Kala Lagaw Ya or Kala Lagau Langgus (Bani, 1976) belongs to the Pama-Nyungan group of Australian languages (Bani,1976:3). However, dialect differences are still apparent. The so- called Mabuiag dialect (Ray,1907:6), spoken by Badbulgal and Gumulgal of Badu and Mabuiag and the Mabuygilgal of Mabuiag as well as the Italgal and Muwalgal of Moa, is now referred to as Kala Lagaw Ya. The dialect of the Boigu, Dauan and Saibai Islanders (the Boeygulgal, Daewanalgal and Saybaylgal), referred to as Saibai dialect (Ray & Haddon,1893) is now termed Kalaw Kawaw Ya. Dialect differences also could be noted in the language variations spoken by the central Islanders (the Kulkalgal) of Puruma, Yam, Warraber, Masig and on other islands only occasionally inhabited as well as in the language of the Kawrareg of Muralag and the other SW islands. All dialects were mutually intelligible and dif- fered only slightly in vocabulary and phonology. MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM At present, western islands language is spoken in three different ways: pure language (Yagar- Yagar); Ap-ne-Ap or “Half and Half? that is, a mixture of Torres Strait creole and Yagar-Y agar; and Moder Laggus, a simplified form of Yagar- Yagar used mainly by younger people in the western islands (Bani, 1976: 3). In the classification of the linguistic patterns of the Torres Strait region it is important to note a northward Australian linguistic influence was followed by a southward Papuan linguistic in- fluence (Wurm,1972:361). These influences were not equal, for while Meriam contains some Kala Lagaw Ya loan words of Australian Aboriginal origin, there is negligible Australian Aboriginal influence on Meriam which contrasts to the strong Papuan influence on the language and dialects of the western Islanders. The position of language on the northern is- lands of Boigu, Dauan and Saibai has not been comprehensively studied. Laade (1970: 271) noted that Europeans as well as Islanders regarded the Mabuiag dialect of Kala Lagaw Ya as the purest form of western islands language. Although the Saibai people state that their lan- guage represents an older form, Laade (1970: 271) stated that Saibai and Boigu were inhabited before the other western islands and Mabuiag was settled by men who obtained women from Saibai and Boigu. Badu was then settled from Mabuiag, but at a later date. The central islands were in- habited at the same time as Boigu and Saibai by people who based their permanent settlement at Tudu and used the other islands on hunting and fishing expeditions. Laade (1970:272) therefore suggested that the Mabuiag language was a com- bination of Saibai language and the language of the original Tudu settlers. Proto-Paman loan words in languages of the Eastern Trans-Fly Family indicates the influence of Australian Aboriginal language in the eastern Trans-Fly area. The predominance of proto- Paman loan words in Gizra suggests that the influence postdates the splitting of Eastern Trans- Fly proto-languages into daughter languages. This is assumed to have taken place 3000-4000 B.P (Wurm,1972:360), indicating a spread northwards of Australian linguistic influence. This was followed by a southward Papuan lin- guistic influence into Torres Strait and Cape York Peninsula, perhaps 1000 years later. Wurm (1972:362) suggested that Gizra and Meriam split from a common proto-language after the splitting of the original Easter Trans-Fly proto-language into daughter languages. Meriam thus shares a CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT 251 BAMU ESTUARY / =, DIBIAl oa cca \ \ Ly up | See ABAURA WABUDA KIWAI FLY ESTUARY ees MIBU ISLAND KIWAL) | sul, } * / \ INATURING KADAWAS 72? panama\ RIVER? ‘ATATA, \7 és DARU / MAWATTA Claobo ot t o-- SOUTHWEST COAST. ~ f ~~ a ; SIGABADURU — SS —- so Por “ KALAW KAWAWYA 7 SAIBAl /eUGAR > DAUAN Pl MERIAM—MER cy ad ae \ ° \ ens BUR saree oN ERUB O yi =e gd FIST : } s DHAMUDH \ EA \ ! \ \ \ TORRES D> aie te a \ STRAIT \ GEBA\ at % GEBAR | TUDU e =n RRON \ \ MUKUVA ® ZEGEY ye, beh \ . ~ by & 7 = YAM a i] \ 2 MER Pn MABUIAG™. o AWRIDH 7 DAUAR % waleR ? PURUMA \ < SAS! 7 / KALA LAGAW YA \ H BADU wer 7 | Fn 7 \ 4 é 2 L 9 et > la 2% © WARRABER prez , @NAGI 8 / . aA [a ; - | t “a l cy o 4 \ 8 / a \ PARAMA RIVER KATATAI DARU PAHOTURI TURETURE RIVER MAWATTA ~~ BOBO SOUTHWEST COAST \ “BoIGu ~~ MABUDAWAN Plane = SIGABADURUS == 1 . \ SAIBAIY ht cen \ 3 DAUAN -—-— ‘ Xe —_ \ \ de BURU ~ \ ? \ \ = -— ‘ \ 7. 9 DHAMUDH oP ERUB \ \ “ TORRES PP mie ae > \ \- strait \ 0% GEBAR ne e -@ MASIG ‘ By o /mukuva ® @zcey , 4 @ ; “4 5 \ oa \ <> YAM 2 {, \ MER / SF. \ \ a: 2 \ / 7" MABUIAG o AWRIDH / \ DAUAR 2 waleR) 2 ! \ < SAsi ? PURUMA _--—~ Sly ee — | BARU ms! \ = - \ Y, \ \ YZ Uy ° 9 Nae ee %\ es / Paes 1 \ ® WARRABER *4f 2nacl \e ? ra i ret e a , / ( / / °/ [ a ¢ oth WAYBEN / 2 { ) / > MURI MURALAG i eg: CAPE YORK \ U/* Js Q MS ate ~ o 10 20 30 40 50 sc a KILOMETRES CAPE YORK PENINSULA FIG 13. Insular allied groups for inter-marriage, raiding and exchange within the Torres Strait (from Harris, 1979), 1=Muralag group. 2=Badu & Mabuiag. 3=Boigu, Saibai & Dauan, 4=Yam, Tudu, Masig. 5=Mer, Erub & Ugar. 258 exchanged for wild foods from Badu (Har- ris, 1979: 96-99). In the SW islands of Muralag and Maa which were subjected to strong seasonal variations and could only support a semi-sedentary population, subsistence activities were mainly wild food procurement. In contrast, Nagi had a higher population density. Becanse Nagi was nyore fer- tile than the Muralag group, borticulture would have been more intensive. The people of Nagi visited the Muralag people regularly, for social and economic reasons, and brought with them bamboa knives, tobacco, fibres for clothing. bows, arrows, mals, omaments, food and canoes which, in particular, they exchanged for wild yams, and pearlshell omaments (Moore,1979: 276, 301). 4 similar relationship existed between the islands of Dauan, Saibai and Borgu (Harris. 1979: 99-}01), Dauan, having permanent water and some gardening Jand, was more intenstvely cultivated than either Saibai or Boigu. However. Saibai and Boigu provided sea foods and wild ammmals. This relationship was further comph- cated by the closeness of Papua, Harris (1979-87-92) supported his hypothesis of insular allied island groups by examining es- timated pre-European contact populations and population densities of Western Torres Strait is- lands. However, many discrepancies occur in ac- curate estimation of pre- and immediate pest-contact populations of these islands (Beck- ett, 1987:26 footmoate)(see Appendix B). This was due, in part, to errors of estimation of movements of semi-permanent populations, and the natural reluctance of many groups to make initial contact with Europeans. Harris (1979-92) related the estimated popula- tion fo calculanons of population density, and stated that a pre-European contact (c. 1840) population of 2870 for the western islands gave an overall population density of 3.7 persons/km° or an average of 7.) people/km of island coast. Beckett (1972:312; 1987:26) stated that, in 1860, the estimated population for inhabited islands of the Torres Strait was c, 4000-5000. By 1900 this had fallen to 2000, although by 1970 it had again risen to 8000. Chalmers (1887:318) reported that epidemics of European diseases, such as small- pox, wiped out substantial numbers of Torres Strait [Islanders and Papuans on the adjoining ooust during the late 1860s. However, it needs to he remembered that, although epidemics also oc- curred in coustal Papua during the 1850s to the 1870s (Oram,1977:92), warfare, seasonal famin- MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM es and local diseases also served to limit populat- ion growth. The statistics do emphasise, however, that the population groups on Torres Strait islands, prior to the 1240s, were relatively small groups, de- pendent upon seasonal horticulture, hunting and fishing. The creation of artificial interdependencies through ritual and exchange of goods would therefore have been of vital importance in draw- ing Islander and Papuan communities into per- manent co-operation for social and economic survival. OF the western islands Nagi, Dauan and Mabuiag had the highest population densities and on these islands horticulture was most developed (Harnis.1979:92). Nagi was associated with Muralag and Moa; Mabuiag with Badu, und Dauan with Saibai and Boigu. Thus, despite population and density fluctuations, these three insular allied groups functioned as separate socio- economic units and within the insular allied group, population figures and density patterns were basically similar. Harris (1979:92) sup- posed that these identifiable regularities related directly to the seasonal pattem of subsistence and to the paltern of exchange of goods which operated across Torres Strait. The complexity of the pre-contact pattems of insular subsistence systems is shown in Hamis’s model. Inter-insular socio-ecanomic ties main- lained a balance between resources and popula- tion which was profoundly disturbed after contact with Europeans, Study of subsistence strategies across Torres Strait by Harns (1979:103-1(4) revealed ‘three insular communities with almost equal populations, linked by an exchange net- work in manufactured goods but dependent for their basic subsistence on the complementary exploitation of wild foods and cultivated crops in the physically contrasted islands of which each community consisted “Wis possible to extend Harris's model mte an examination of subsis- tence pattems for the eastern islands using histen- cal population data. Mer. Ugar and Erub constituted a similar in- sular allied community for the eastern Islanders were bound by a common language and, inhabit- ing the high fertile eastern islands with relatively easy access to the marine resources, were united by isolation from the western and central islands. Figures from Hunt (1899:5), Beckett (1972: 312), and Haddon (1935, 1:95, 190) show that prior to 1871, Mer, with 700 persons and an area of 4.8 km? had 146 persons/km*. The Mer. Dauan and CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACKOSS TORRES STRAIT Waier group, wilh a population of 800, had a density of 133 persons /kam". Erub with 500, had 100 persons/ km?, and Ugar with 70, had 64 persons/km?. The eastern islands, with an es- tumated population of 1270, had 116.5 persons/ kin? (Beckett,J987:113). This figure is higher than that of the western islands. The eastern is- lands supported high pepulations on small, ferule islands where intensive horticulture was com- bined with exploitation of rich marine resources in a pattern of subsistence similar to that which operated on the SW coast and Fly estuary. Mer had the highest population and population density. Mer was also the principal island in which external exchange was formally regulated by one clan group, the Komet. It would seem that high population density in small islands demanded large scale interdependence for ritual, mamage and extemal, as well as internal ex- change. Beckett (1972: 323) suggested that it was the authority of the clan leaders, expressed through control of the Malo-Bomai cult, that united the separate village units of Mer. It may be, therefore, that population density was one reason for development of a highly regulated clan system which permitted the Komet clan control of external exchange relations, particularly with Papuan groups on the mainland to the north, while permitting the Peibre clan control af intemal ex- change between the eastem Islanders and the central Islanders. Population figures fer the central islands of the Torres Strait are not comprehensive. However, it may be assumed that the Yam and Tudu Island group maintained a higher population density than the other islands of the central group which were largely sand cays (Beckett,1972:312: Chester,1870:1,3). The Yam and Tudu Islanders constituled one people. Tudu was most likely only temporarily inhabited before the estab- hshment of a pearling station there pnor to 1870 (Chester, 1870). Yam was an important centre of contact between Torres Strait Islanders and coas- tal Papuans well before European contact , Exchange of shell ornaments from Torres Strail for canoe hulls from the Fly estuary was, until the introduction of European boats, the principal transaction. Ethnographic evidence supports the ides that 3 variety of subsistence economies operated across Torres Strait. As Harris (1977; 458) summarized, particularly with reference to the western Torres Strait islands and Papuan coastal area west of Dani, ‘aboriginal populations were sustained by broad-spectrum systems which incerporated some degree of resource specialization, whereas in the island zone, where population pressure on resources is likely to have been greatest, more specialized systems developed which focused to varying degrees on the exploitation of both hor- ticultural crops and marine resources.’ The underlying factor which facilitated ex- change relations between the small Island com- munities and coastal PNG during pre- and early histoncal penods was the necessity to crealé ar- ficial dependencies through marriage. exchange and warfare, [0 Overcome, or miligale against unequal distribution of natural resources. Contact with Europeans was also unequal and. as the histoncal documentary literature, supported by oral testimony, will show, introduction of European trade goods into the exchange system led to the eventual disruption of the customary patterns. EUROPEAN PERCEPTIONS OF CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE Historical sources cannot be considered com- pletely authoritative because they result mosily from superficial contacts between two groups uf people lacking clear understanding of each other's cultural practices, beliefs and languages. From an era of colonial expansion they may have Eurocentric biases, of may exhibit racist senti- ments, ignorance or misinforniation, Nevertheless rnuch important information can be extracted from these historical sources. The writings of missionanes, traders and colonial of- ficials must alsa be approached with caution, Notwithstanding these problems, historical documentary sources yield much on the material culture of observable exchange patiems. IISTORY OF EUROPEAN CONTACT WITH INDIGENOUS GROUPS IN THE TORRES STRAIT AND FLY ESTUARY, AND NOTES ON DOCUMENTARY SOURCES Although Luiz Baes de Torres passed through Torres Strait in 1606, it was not until the carly nineteenth century. when expansion and sertle- ment of the Australian Colonies began in earnest, that inhabitants of the region began to attract the attention of Europeans. Inlerest was generated more as 4 result of the difficulties of passage through the reef-strewn waters and subsequent shipwreck than from any real interest in the peoples and cultures of Torres Strait, Edward Edwards, in HMS Pandora named Murray Island (Mer) in 1791 and noted the canoes of the eastern Islanders (Flinders,]814,I:xvi). William Bligh had passed through Torres Strait in 1789 after the mutiny in HMS Bounty, In 1792, in HMS Providence, he charted a wide course through the Strait, naming Darnley Island (Erub). He made detailed notes on his passage and his contacts with local people (Bligh, 1976). Conflict occurred in 1793 on Darley Island when the crews of the Honnuzzer and Chesterfield, under the command of Captains William Brampton and Matthew Alt, destroyed huts and canoes at Bikar village now known as Treacherous Bay (Flinders, 1814,I:xxx-xxxvi). They destroyed 16 50-70 (15—21m) foot canoes. In 1802, Flinders in the /nvestigator, sailed through the Strait, describ- ing people and canoes (Flinders, 1814, II: 105-123). In 1836, the /sabella ,under Captain Lewis, was sent to search for survivors of the Charles Eaton; the narrative of this voyage contained some eth- nographic material (Brockett, 1836). Torres Strait, southern coastal PNG and north- ern Australia were explored by the Fly and Bram- ble under Captain Blackwood in 1842-1846; evidence of the material culture of the peoples encountered came from reports of these voyages (Jukes, 1847; Macgillivray,1852; Melville, 1848). Brierly (1849\50) who recorded the rescue of Barbara Thompson, who had been shipwrecked at Cape York (Moore,1979), added valuable eth- nographic information. The journal of John Sweatman (Allen & Corris,1977), who served on the Bramble (1845-1847), added cultural infor- mation from the first half of the nineteenth cen- tury. The era of the surveying voyages, 1837-1850, began a period of great social and economic change in Torres Strait and the Fly estuary. After 1860, Torres Strait became a centre for commercial pearling and béche-de-mer fishing with a labour force of Pacific Islanders, Australian Aborigines and Europeans, as well as Torres Strait Islanders. The Queensland colonial government promoted interest in Torres Strait by establishing a settlement at Somerset, Port Albany, in 1864 to serve as a base for control over Torres Strait Is- landers and white adventurers living beyond colonial laws. A colonial administrative centre at Cape York, and on Thursday Island after 1877, assisted explora- tion, missions and administration of Torres Strait. The pearl-shelling industry was established on Warrior Island (Tudu) in 1868 by Captain Banner (Chester,1870). Employment of Pacific Islanders MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM in the industry was outside the Queensland Polynesian Labourers Act of 1868 and sub- sequent political moves were made by the Queensland Government to secure the region under its jurisdiction. As late as 1877, Murray, Darnley, Saibai, Dauan and Boigu were still under jurisdiction of the Govermor of Fiji and Western Pacific High Commission. Henry Marjoribanks Chester, Resi- dent Magistrate on Thursday Island, and the then Queensland Premier, John Douglas, actively sought control over these eastern and northern islands in an attempt to regulate the béche-de-mer and pearl-shelling industries and to contro] law- lessness in the Torres Strait. In July 1871, the London Missionary Society under Samuel Macfarlane and A.W. Murray es- tablished a base on Darnley Island and from there began a steady outward movement across the Torres Strait islands and into PNG, The London Missionary Society used Pacific Islanders, notably Samoans, Cook Islanders and Loyalty Islanders, as missionaries and evan- gelism was left to these Pacific Islander pastors. As a result, Polynesian cultures were to have a profound impact on customary practices of the Torres Strait people in the second half of the nineteenth century. The history of the Christian missions in Torres Strait must be seen in terms of colonization (Beckett, 1978a:209). Mission paternalism mir- rored economic and political paternalism of the white administration although Macfarlane recog- nised the ability of the Islanders to make judge- ments about the missions because he believed that they welcomed the missionaries as protection against the uncertain actions of European and Pacific Islander boat crews from pearling and béche-de-mer stations (Beckett,1978a:213). By the end of the nineteenth century most Islander communities were nominally Christian. The Ad- ministrator of Papua, Sir William Macgregor, gave the London Missionary Society a sphere of influence from Milne Bay to Torres Strait which was maintained until 1914, when it handed over its activities to the Church of England. The only exception was the Congregation of the Sacred Heart Mission at Yule Island from 1885. In this climate the first major anthropological study of the region was made by the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition of 1898 led by A.C. Haddon; it was a watershed in the history of British anthropology (Urry,1984:98). Haddon’s methodological approach to ethnology reflected his long concern with the processes of evolution CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT which he had derived from his earlier training in the biological sciences (Urry,1982:77). Haddon undertook zoological research in Torres Strait in 1888 and published an ethnography of western Islanders (Haddon, 1890). Of the 6 volumes of reports (Haddon, 1901— 1935) I-VI, which dealt in detail with physiol- ogy, psychology, religion, sociology, linguistics and arts, were published between 1901 and 1912. Volume I on general ethnography was published 37 years after the field work; Haddon maintained regular correspondence with a number of people in Torres Strait during the interval so that volume I contains information not included in the earlier, more detailed, volumes. The philosophical dictum of expedition mem- bers that it was necessary to record all aspects of Torres Strait Islander culture was prompted by a now discredited evolutionist premise that change was fundamentally destroying the ‘traditional fabric’ of indigenous societies and that it was important for ethnographers to document these cultures before their inevitable decline (Sil- litoe, 1976:13; Urry, 1982). Early European contact in the Western Province of PNG may be described in terms of establishment and decline of missions and reluc- tant growth of colonial administration. The first European to settle in Papua was the Reverend W.G. Lawes of the London Missionary Society who, in 1874, established a mission near Port Moresby. In 1872, Pacific Islander teachers were landed at Katau (Mawatta), 48km NW of Darnley Island. James Chalmers arrived in Papua in 1877 and established a mission at Suau, off South Cape. Conflict between Lawes, Chalmers and Macfar- lane, on Dauan, over personal and professional matters led to 3 spheres of mission influence. Several administrative changes occurred be- tween proclamation of the British Protectorate in 1884 and the 1908 Papuan Act of the Australian Parliament which established the Australian Ter- ritory of Papua. The impact of explorers, prospectors and traders, and uncontrolled labour recruitment on village life led to extended British and Australian administration over Papua and the Torres Strait islands in the late 19th century. Macfarlane, Chester as well as the Italian adventurer D’- Albertis travelled up the Fly River in 1875 (Mac- farlane,1875/76; Wilson,1978; D’Albertis, 1879). The Mai Kussa area was explored by Octavius Stone and Macfarlane in 1875 (Stone, 1880) and by John Strachan in 1884 (Strachan, 261 1888). D’Albertis acquired notoriety from his account of his second trip up the Fly River in 1876 (D’ Albertis, 1881; Austen, 1925). Chester voyaged from Torres Strait into the Fly River in 1870. During a trip to the pearl-shelling station on Warrior Is. he collected a vocabulary of ‘New Guinea’ words on Damley Is. which appear to be mainly Kiwai language; he also referred to the frequency of contacts between Papuans and Islanders (Chester, 1870). British New Guinea government control caused a decline in mission influence, especially after Macfarlane’s retirement in 1886. When Chalmers assumed responsibility for the mission in the Western Province, he found it in a state of collapse with posts abandoned, churches deserted and demoralised teachers living in poverty and ill health (Chalmers, 1887; Langmore,1978). He es- tablished a base at Saguane, on Kiwai Is. but, following the death of his wife in 1900, re-estab- lished the station on Daru Is. In 1901, Chalmers and his assistant Tomkins were killed at Goaribari Island, near the Omati River, and the mission to the Kiwai floundered. Edward Baxter-Riley took charge of the Fly estuary-Mawatta coast after Chalmers. Based at Daru for 30 years, he re-es- tablished the Kiwai Mission and wrote extensive- ly on the cultural life and language of the Kiwai (Baxter-Riley,1925). By 1895, Daru was ad- ministrative and mission centre of Western Province following the closure of the government residency at Mabudawan which had been estab- lished in 1891. Daru became harbour, water and fuel depot and a base for trade and commercial exploitation of the Fly River and the Torres Strait. While based at Daru, resident magistrates, such as A.H. Jiear (1904/05) and Wilfred Beaver (1920), made notable contributions to an under- standing of the cultures of Papuan people. They also reported on Papuan contacts with Torres Strait Islanders. The most important anthropological study of the people of the SW coast was made by Gunnar Landtman, between 1910 and 1912 (Landtman, 1917,1927, 1933). Landtman made a comprehen- sive collection (Landtman,1933) of the material culture of the coastal and riverine peoples. His collection of more than 1300 artefacts was placed in the National Museum of Finland, Helsinki, in February 1913. It complements Haddon’s Torres Strait collection. Administrative control of SW Papua was ex- tended from the permanent colonial administra- tive post at Daru. Police and colonial authority suppressed warfare and raiding, leading to 262 pacification of the SW coast, Commerce was only partially successful with plantations established only at Mibu Island, at Madin near the mouth of the Fly, and at Dirimu on the Binaturi River. The Fly estuary and SW coast never developed to any extent economically, Transportation and com- munications remained undeveloped, The SW coast of Western Province remains one of the most economically depressed regions of PNG having only small villages with low population. Today, these villages continue subsistence ac- tivities supplemented by small-scale cash crop- ping, market gardening and artisanal fishing, and by remillances from kin working away from the village. CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE PATTERNS AS RECORDED IN HISTORICAL SOURCES In 1770, off Possession Island near Cape York, Captain James Cook sighted a party of men ‘nine of them were armed with such lances as we had been accustomed te see, the tenth had a bow, and a bundle of arraws, which we had never seen in the possession of the natives of this country | Australia] before.’(Flinders,1814,l:xv). Edward Edwards in 1791 and William Bligh in 1792 detailed the size, quality and excellence of canoes of the Islanders. Bligh (1976: log entry Thursday 6th September) remarked on the desire of the Torres Strait Islanders for iron:‘While the Assistant was al Anchor several Cannoes [sic] went alongside her and traded their Bows and Arrows for Iran of any kind - They took care to MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM make good bargains, but were honest and readily gave up what was agreed for - ..," (Fig. 14). Flinders (1814,1:xxiii) described the large double-outrigger dugout canoes: ‘Their canoes were about fifty feer in length, and appear to have been hollowed out of a single tree, but the pieces which form the gunwales, are planks sewed on with the fibres of the cocoa nut, and secured with pegs. The vessels are low, forward, but rise abaft, and, being narrow, are fitted with an outrigger on each side, to keep them steady. A raft, of greater breadth than the canoe, extends over about half the length; and. upon this is fixed a shed or hut, thatched with palm leaves. These people, in short, appeared to be dexterous sailors and formidable warriers; and to be as much at ease in the water, as in their canoes,’ (Fig, 15). On Darnley Is., Captains Brampton and Altin 1793 noted that men were rubbed with a reddish or burnt substance [ochre], and that cassowary or emu feathers decorated a string of skulls and hands in a hut (Flinders, 1814.1: xxxiit, xxxvi).On Stephens Is,, Brampton described an opossum which had probably been brought either from New Guinea, or Australia (Flinders,1814, 1: xxxviit). Brampton and Alt noted: ‘The natives af the island came down in cansiderable numbers; and exchanged some bows and arrows, for knives and other articles’ (Flinders,1814, I:xxxiii). Flinders (1814,[1:109) made detailed notes on the material culture of Torres Strait and noted the eagerness to barter bows, arrows and food for metal, particularly iron, In 1822 Wilson (1835:313) observed that many of the people on Murray Is. may have belonged FIG, 14. ‘Torres Strait. The genera) order of sailing’. Sketch by George Tobin from Bligh (1976:146), showing Torres Strait Islanders offering exchange goods to passing vessels. CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT FIG. 15. “View of Murrays Is,, with the natives offering to barter.” Sketch by W.Westall from Flinders (1814, 11; facing 110), showing sailing canoes aod canoes being paddled by Torres Strait Islanders offering bows, shell, und either a small mat or tobacco pipe, to Darnley, Warrior and other neighbouring is- lands and he praised their ability to sail their serra close to the wind (Wilson, 1835:309 foot- note). George Windsor Earl, a noted advocate of settlement in northern Australia and defender of the scheme to establish an entrepét port at Port Essington in the Northern Terjtory wrote, in 1839, some notes on the indigenous peoples at Cape York:' The natives were seen, but we had no communication with them. They did not appear to differ from those to the south. When passing the N side af Hummonds Is. we saw an encamp- ment of natives in a small bay, from which wo canoes put off under sail, the people in them holding up pieces of tortoise-shell and pearl- shell, but we did not heave to for them. These canoes, which were large and well managed, answered perfectly the description given by Flinders of those of the islanders of Torres Strait. This renders it probable that the people we met with here were natives of some of those islands, ar perhaps even af the S{outh) ceast of New Guinea, who had came here te trade with the ships passing. (Reece, 19§2:28). Jukes (1847) provided the most detailed ac- counts of contacts between Islanders and Papuans during the nineteenth century, He gave an analysis of contacts between Torres Strait Is- landers and coastal Papuans at Darnley Is. on April 21,1845:'7 enquired about places to the northward; they seemed to have no acquainiance with any such names as Papua er Arafoora, but frequently mentioned Dowdee ... [In this Dowdee they gave me the following list of names of places apparently in the order of their occurrence: Samarree, Dodee, Keewai, Eemaree, Parrem, Baeb, Kereged, Erro, Mowan, Saibai, Dowar ... Oige, Katatai, Sowee, Kagga, Coer, Baizoo; all these they said, were in Dowdee, expressing it as Samaree Duwdee, Keewai Dowdee.' (Jukes, 1847, 11:211), These names may be interpreted as: ‘Samaree’ (Samari,Kiwai [s.); ‘Dodee” (Dudi,the western bank of the Fly River delta); ‘'Keewai’ (Kiwai Is.); ‘Eemaree’ (Sumai of Imari village); “‘Parrem' (Parem or Parama Is.); "Baeb’ (Boba Is.); ‘Karaged’ (Kagaur); ‘Erro’ (Yaru); "Mowat’ (Old Mawatta); ‘Saibai’ (Saibai); ‘Dowar'’ (Dauan), “Oige’ (Auti); ‘Katatai’ (Katatai vil- lage); ‘Sowee’ (Sui village); ‘Kagga’ (Kagar - the eastern part of Saibai); ‘Baigoo’ (Boigu); ‘Samaree Dowdee’ (Samari, New Guinea|side]); *“Keewai Dowdee’ (Kiwai, New Guinea [side]), 'l have, therefore, no doubt that they are ac- quainted with a considerable extent of that part of the south coast of New Guinea which lies immediately north af them, and that their general name for the country is Dawdee,’ (Jukes, 1847 Jk: 211). Jukes also noted that Papuans in small single outrigger canoes understood Menam language and resembled the people from Erub, Contact between Islanders on Erub and other Torres Strait Islanders was recorded by Jukes on his return to Darnley in June 1845, At the village of Keriam he noticed two men from Warrior Js_and at Maed- ha [Med] he found ten or twelve large canoes drawn up on the beach, and a large party of men 264 and women from Tudu and Dhamudh, and other islands to the westward, on a visit.(Jukes, 1847, 1:292-293). The Sweatman journals (Allen & Corris, 1977:24) reported that contacts with Islanders from Masig, Tudu and Dhamudh were made on Erub. Sweatman stated: ‘... out of about 90 natives we met in York Bay in 1846 at least half were islanders, and in the same years we met their canoes as far south as Sir Charles Hardy’s Is- lands [to the east of Cape Grenville].’(Allen & Corris, 1977:24). He also supposed that the people of Cape York were connected with Is- landers from Masig. Sweatman remarked, while describing the bows, arrows and clubs of eastem Islanders, that there were no reeds (for arrowshafts) on the is- lands so it was assumed that arrows were obtained by barter from New Guinea (Allen & Cor- ris,1977:33). Although Darnley Islanders were competent in making their own bows from local bamboo, Sweatman noted (Allen & Corris, 1977:33) that bows in New Guinea were of a totally different construction. Stone heads for clubs were a prized possession and Sweatman thought they were obtained from New Guinea (Allen & Corris,1977:33). Following a detailed description of Islanders’ canoes Sweatman wrote:‘The canoes are pro- cured from New Guinea, there being no trees on the islands of sufficient size to make them, and appear to be pretty numerous, we saw 10 or 12 together at Erub ...’(Allen & Corris,1977:35). In Sweatman’s opinion, based on observations by Jukes, Darnley people could travel long dis- tances in their canoes. They maintained sustained contact with New Guinea from where they procured canoes, arrows, clubs and feathers in return for shells which were highly prized by New Guinea people whose muddy shores had few or none of them. (Allen & Corris, 1977:36). An interesting point concerning the role of ‘name changing’ in Islander custom was made by Sweatman (Allen & Corris,1977:36). This prac- tice, he maintained, ensured that the two people who had ‘adopted’ each other’s names main- tained a preferential position in all bartering transactions and formed a close personal relation- ship which required the giving of presents and attention. Sweatman correctly assumed that per- sonal relationships formed the basis for all cus- tomary exchange transactions. Because of the regular contact between Is- landers and the men of the Fly, an informal market was established at the house of the MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM Mamoose (headman) at Bikar, on Darnley Is. Sweatman noted:‘... several women sitting in a row with mats before them on which were piled coconuts, yams, shells, etc., much in the same style as the Malays. Some of these mats are very large and well-made and one of them was generally spread out for us to sit down on when we got into a yarn with the natives. (Allen & Corris,1977:37). Brockett (1836), in his account of the rescue of the boys John Ireland and William D’ Oyley (sur- vivors of the Charles Eaton) at Murray Is., recorded that John Ireland had accompanied the Murray Islanders to New Guinea on a ‘trading trip’. His protectors on Murray Is. gave Ireland a canoe which was ‘purchased at New Guinea ... for a large tomahawk and a bow and arrow’ (Ireland,1839?: 51). The journey to New Guinea was made in 12 large canoes, each 60 feet (18m) in length, containing 10 to 16 men, women and children. The people collected as many shells as they could; in retum they hoped to obtain canoes, bows, arrows and feathers. Ireland’s voyage was abruptly curtailed when his protector, fearing for his safety on the Papuan coast, left him at Darnley Is. (Ireland, 1839?:80) (Fig. 16). King (1837) wrote of this ‘trading’ journey and noted that Murray Islanders obtained dogs from New Holland (Cape York) and:‘Their weapons are spears, which they procure from the New Holland natives; clubs, headed with stone and bows, and arrows; the latter they get from New Guinea ...’. At Restoration Is. [Rock] near Cape Wey- mouth the Beagle anchored beside the island where Stokes (1846, II:256-257) made contact with a party of Torres Strait Islanders who had hauled their double outrigger canoes up onto the beach. These Islanders recognised a Murray Is. canoe from a drawing, in a copy of the narrative of Flinders’ voyage, and they spoke Meriam lan- guage. The Torres Strait Islanders, Stokes (1846, II:441) noted, wanted to barter turtle shell for iron, carried bone tipped spears and had dugong harpoons. Macgillivray (1852,II:4) commented on rela- tions between the peoples of Cape York, the western Islanders and coastal Papuans: ‘The Kowraregas [Kawrareg] speak of New Guinea under the name of Muggi’ (little) Dowdai, while to New Holland [Australia] they apply the term of Kei’ (large) Dowdai. Their knowledge of the former island has been acquired indirectly through the medium of intervening tribes. The New Guinea people are said to live chiefly on pigs CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT 265 FIG. 16. Village on Erub (Darnley Is.). From a sketch by H.S. Melville (1848:pl.17). and sago; from them are obtained the cassowary feathers used in their dances, and stone-headed clubs. They trade with the Gumulegas [Gumulgal on Badu and Mabuiag], who exchange com- modities with the Badulegas [Badhulgal on Badu] from whom the Kowrarega people [on Muralug, Moa and neighbouring islands] receive them. These last barter away to their northern neigh- bours spears, for bows, arrows, bamboo pipes, and knives, and small shell ornaments called dibi-dibi. They have friendly relations with the other islanders of Torres Strait, but are at enmity with all the mainland tribes except the Gudang [who lived around the Cape York and Evans Bay area].” Not all relationships were friendly, for Macgil- livray (1852,11:44-45) noted that a headman of Kiriam [Keriam] village on Darnley Is. had been killed in New Guinea while on a visit in the company of other Darnley Is. men. A stand of sago palms at Mogor village was established with palms brought from New Guinea many years prior to Macgillivray’s visit and a small cuscus (Phalanger sp.), which one Islander had brought across from Ugar, was also procured in Papua. The extent to which contact between friendly peoples developed into regular exchange is recorded in Brierly’s journal. He based his find- ings on an interview with Barbara Thompson who lived with the Muralag people from 1844 to 1849. Moore (1979:301—306) detailed the exter- nal relations of the Kawrareg people of Muralag and neighbouring islands, basing his study on Brierly’s journal. The Kawrareg maintained regular contacts with the people of Moa, Badu, and Mabuiag while other important exchange relationships were with the central Islanders of Nagi (Moore, 1979:301). Exchange between PNG and Cape York was not direct but through a series of interrelated exchanges. Mabuiag people maintained direct exchange with coastal Papuans and with the Badu Islanders who forwarded items on to the western Islanders on Muralag. Thus cassowary feathers, bird of paradise plumes and cone shells, ground down to make breast pendants, found their way from PNG into the islands, while pearl-shell, dugong harpoons, as well as spears and spearthrowers from Cape York, found their way north and into PNG (Moore, 1979:301). 266 The other important exchange relationship for the western Islanders was with the central Is- landers of Nagi. In exchange for pearlshell the central islanders gave food, bamboo containers, mats, bows, arrows, bamboo knives, fine lines of coconut fibre, plaitwork and sago as well as seasonal foods for planting, including tobacco, coconuts and bananas (Moore, 1979:203,301). Many of these items, particularly mats, bows, arrows and sago, originated in PNG, although Brierly’s journal (Moore,1979:173) stated that the central Islanders made sago from palms washed up on the islands. It would have been poor sago after long immersion in seawater! The western Islanders obtained red and white ochres from the Gudang of Cape York, although Thompson stated (Moore, 1979:224) that ochre from Saibai was ‘prettier’. Stone-headed clubs and drums from PNG also passed along exchange routes (Moore, 1979:303) (Fig.17). The Saibai people maintained social relationships with the central Islanders (Moore,1979:224). Moore (1979:301) stated that the principal centres along the SW coast for the movement of exchange items were Saibai and Mawatta (Fig.18). Crew of the Rattlesnake sketched many fine canoes at Evans Bay and the Brierly journal con- tains many useful ethnographic references to canoe construction, decoration and repair. One section on the barter process described an ex- change, on Kudalag (Tuesday Islet No.l), be- tween some central Islanders and a western Islander who had made a small canoe out of light wood washed up on the beach. ‘After they (Central Islander] sat for about half an hour here, the Kulkalgas, man and wife, went down to the canoe and brought up a mat into the women’s camp and spread it. Ubi is called over and he sits down on the mat and the man and his wife standing. First she gave two dibi-dibis [conus shell breast pendants] to her husband, he lays them down before Ubi, and then she hands two yegellies [coconut fibre fishing line, used for sucker fish] - made by the Kulkalagas [Central Islanders] of coconut fibre and used for [catching] waru [turtle]. He lays them down, then two or three coconuts, lays them down, then a bundle of tobacco, and then a sagooba marappi [bamboo tobacco pipe]. Now it is all put down, and then he says to Ubi, “That's all I’ve been able to get together for this time. I will look out for more when I go back again”. And Ubi says, ... “Stop, Stop, there are plenty of things. The canoe is small.” (Moore, 1979:222-223), Then the canoe MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM was modified by the addition of planks and trimmed for sailing to Nagi (Fig 19). Brierly (1862b:396) noted:‘The Prince of Wales Islanders have no direct communication with New Guinea, but get ornaments, feathers and weapons through the Badus and other tribes, who obtain them either from New Guinea or from islands immediately upon its coast and take back in return from the Kowraregas [Kaurareg] the Shell of the large flat oyster they call Marri [mari or mai: pearl-shell], which is much valued by the people to the north for making breast ornaments.’ Gregory (Gregory & Gregory,1968:101) wrote that indigenous people of the Port Albany region on Cape York had made contact with European vessels using the Torres Strait passage and had thus become acquainted with tobacco which they continued to smoke in bamboo pipes. He saw ‘natives’ with spears, bows and arrows and canoes, which were made from a hollowed out single tree, stabilized with outriggers. Ethnographic details of exchange between Is- landers and Australian Aborigines in Cape York were recorded by Byerley (1867). Near New- castle Bay the Jardine party, who were moving live-stock to Cape York, camped near three large canoes, the largest being about 28 feet (8.5 m) long and 30 inches (76 cm) wide cut froma single log. People from the canoes spent the night play- ing on two large drums procured either by barter or by war from the Islanders who frequent the coast (Byerley,1867:68). Cape York people ex- changed turtle shell, particularly the hawksbill turtle, with the Islanders who used them for masks and other ornaments (Byerley, 1867:82). ‘communication between the islanders and the natives of the mainland is frequent, and the rapid manner in which news is carried from tribe to tribe to great distances is astonishing.’ (Byerley, 1867:85). Chester (1870:2), Police Magistrate at Somer- set, recorded details of a visit to the Warrior Is. (Tudu) pearling station: ‘For weapons they have bows, arrows and stone clubs. Their canoes are similar to, but larger than those of the mainland [Cape York]; they (as well as their weapons and turtle spears) are obtained from New Guinea in exchange for shells and the knives and tomahawks procured from Europeans’. As the Tudu Islanders were in frequent com- munication with coastal Papuans between Saibai and Daru, Chester (1870:3) recommended their use as interpreters in establishing contact with coastal Papua. Chester was enthusiastic about the potential for CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT 267 PAPUA NEW GUINEA BAMU ESTUARY DIBIRI DOMIRI AUSTRALIA << = oo Cy UMUDA rte, &* FLY ESTUARY BITURI RIVER ORIOMO RIVER BINATURI KADAWA* RIVER KATATA RUBSA MAI KUSSA > DARU ners TURETURE Gl RIV MAWATTA BOBO SOUTHWEST COAST BOIG MABUDAWAN SIGABADURU [ SAIBAI oe UGAR ochre, drums, stone- DAUAN headed clubs, cassowary feathers, BURU e bird of paradise food, bamboo knives, sago, DHAMUDH a ERUB plumes, coneshells bamboo water containers, tobacco, ° mats, bows, arrows, coconuts, TORRES ‘bush’ fibres, plaitwork, bananas ° STRAIT % GEBAR e < MASIG co TUDU r. MUKUVA © © ZEGEY a. . <= YAM ° » MER iP. MABUIAG a AWRIDH DAUAR % WAIER “peart-shells, 2 MER 1 GaBUIAG ———Frarpoons *, |AWRIDH dugeng and DAUAR “2 waleR Rk Aramboo < Sasi ? PURUMA BADU bows, bamboo, tabacco sf (yor) eee ° ee 4 a Mae 8 o A ° pearl-shells, dugong a Ly WAYBEN dugong and harpoons a) ° turtle meat > MUR! MURALAG 2* CAPE YORK throwing-sticks, spears 4% o 10 20 30 40 50 CAPE YORK P ENINSUEA § KILOMETRES AUSTRALIA FIG, 20. Patterns of customary exchange (Haddon, 1890). CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT Gill (1874b:219) reported that the Saibar Is- landers spoke a dialect of the language of the nearby mainland people and that they understood the customs of their neighbours and maintained fnendly relations with the Katau (Mawatta) and Turcture people. As Gill determined that the coastal people opposite Saibai were aggressive, he proposed to sail 10 Katau (Mawatta) on the Binaturi River. However, previous contact with Maing, the village headman at Mawatta (Chester,1870), would have determined Mawatta as @ choice of contact on the coast for it appears that mission teachers had previously visited Katau on canoes. Gill explored much of the Mawatta coast frorm Kata (Binaturi River) to Parama [sland and noted: ‘The warriors of Tut |Tudu] and Satbai unite with these of Katau [Mawatta] and Toroteram [Turcture| in making raids upon the inland tribes, for the sole purpose of obtaining heads. The skulls are carefully prepared and traded with other tribes, or retained as precious treasures by those whe secured them.’ (Gi1,1876:207). Moseley (1892:307) visited Cape York in 1874, on the Challenger, and wrote that the Aboriginal groups at Somerse! used bambeo pipes for smoking and that “bamboos are procured by barter fram the Murray Islanders who visit Cape York from time to time’. Moseley had Jukes’ (1847) narrative and so was able to document social and cultural changes as a result of a decade of European settlement} at Somerset after 1864: ‘Cape York [Somerset] is @ sort of emporium of savage weapons and ornaments. peart-shell-pathering vessels ,,. conve to Somerset with crews which they have picked up at all the islands in the neighbourhood, from New Guinea, and from all ever the Pacific, and they bring weapons and ornaments from all these places with them. Moreover, the Murray Islanders visit the port in their canoes, and bring bows and arrows, drums and such things for barter’ (Moseley, 1892:311). Water police at Somerset acted as middlemen, obtaining these artefacts and then selling them to crews and passengers on passing vessels and the surgeon of the Challenger was paid ‘a large New Guinea drum of the crocodile form’ as a fee for service (Moseley, 1892:311), The missions assisted colonial administration and illegal raiding on Torres Strait islands and the SW coast from pearl-shelling stations was reduced. The introduction of European goods into customary exchange increased. Islander com- munities re-formed around the church. Seasonal 271 movements of central and western Islanders were curbed and new social structures created within the puritanical shadow of the church. The church manipulated customary exchange and gift giving and became the chief benefactor (Beckett, 1986:42). European trading companies and tim- ber geflers were encouraged to establish posts on the Papuan coast. Edward Beardmore established himself at Mawatta village, originally called Katau (Beardmore,1890: 459), and wrote: “Canoes are made at Kiwai and Paramoa [Parama] (Bampton Island) but not, J ancassured, in the Maikusa (Mai Kussa] Beater River .. Pay- ments are made to suit the purchaser, sometintes in advance, but usually by three instalments of shell ornaments (or in recent times of trade, such as tobacco, tomahawks, and calice). The wn- adorned canoes, with but a single flimsy autriy- ger, are transferred from one village to another until the destination is reached; each party receiving the canoe being responsible for the payment by the next. The builders, or rather dig- gerssoul, usually deliver at Mowat (Mawalttal, fram thence the canoe travels to Saibai, then to Mabruag |Mabuiag), and from there to Rady, Moa, and ultimately say to Muralug [Muralag] or Nayir [Nagi], {n the case of evasion of payment a row ensues between parties and the delinquent is injured invisibly (by sorcery) in some way at the instigation of the sufferer, The wooden harpoon used in killing dugong and turtle is got and worked inta shape about Mabruag [Mabuiag], Moa and Badu and sent in the same manner as the canoes to New Guinea, via Saibai.” (Beard- more, 1890:464-465). Haddon met Beardmore at Mawatta in 1888 and later published a paper in Which he classified trade as: ‘()) Intea-insular trade; (2) Trade with Daudai [Papua]; and (3) Trade with Cape York’ (Haddon. 1890:329 (Fig. 20). Because of their geographical location and greater access to natural resources, certain vil- lages and islands possessed greater facilities than othets and were in a position to exchange their surplus production for scarce resources, thereby dominating intra-insular trade. Haddon (1890; 339) wrote that Muralag was the chief centre for manufacture of dugong harpoons, although har- poons were also made on Moa, Badu and Mabuiag. The finest examples of cone shell (Conus litteratus) came from Warrior Reef and other reefs to the east, and consequently the most prized examples came from Tudu and the eastern islands such as Mer. The base of the cone shell was made tnta a round shel] omament worm as a FIG. 21. Sheil armiets and shell pendant made from Conus sp, Pendant is attached to a cord made from plant fibre decorated with dogs” teeth. Photographed in Madame village, PNG. breast pendant, while the cone of the shell was made into an armshel! wom on the upper arm. Pearlshells, traded as breast ornaments, were ob- tained throughout the Torres Strait. Other neck- laces made from olive shells (Olivia sp)were used as items of exchange. The islands which grew bamboo (e.g., Moa, Yam, Nagi) exchanged bows, and bamboo for making bows, with other islands. Similarly, armlets made from plaited coconut leaf were exchanged with islands without coconut trees, such as Muralag. People of Tudu made wood and turtle-shell masks, decorated with feathers, shells. and rattles, and traded them to Yam and Nagi. Waisted drums were traded to the western tslands from Saibai (Haddon, 1890:340), Arrows were imported from Papua, because shafts were made from reeds which did not grow in the wesiern islands, Bows were imported from MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM Papua, as were large, open-mouth and small, cylindrical drums, cassowary feather headdresses and plumes of bird of paradise feathers, Bird of paradise plumes were obtained from the west from ‘Tugen pirates via Saibai’ (Haddon,1890: 340). Other items obtained from Papua included canoes and sago, Shells were sent to Papua from the western islands, in retum for canoes, All large canoes in Torres Strait came from the Fly estuary (Haddon,1890:341), principally Wabada village in the Bamu River where canoes were fitted with one outrigger. From here, they passed through the Kiwai and then to the Mawatta people and to Saibai, On Saibai, single outngger canoes were re-rigged with two outriggers, a gun- wale was filted and the bow decorated with feathers, shells and other ornaments. From Saibai, these decorated canoes found their way into the western islands. Haddon's (1890) assumptions about ethnog- raphy of the westem Islanders concerning the nature of customary exchange were undoubtedly correct at the time, However, he was document- ing patterns of exchange at one point in the Jong history of contact between Islanders and Papuans, These patterns had changed since European con- tact, and were stili changing. Haddon did not fully comprehend the significance of change on cul- tural and economic life of Islanders and Papuans. Another canoe trade route (Haddon, 1890:342) was from Mawatta direct to Tudu and then via the central islands and Nagi to Muralag and the western islands. Orders for canoes were sent through contacts across the Torres Strait and along the SW coast. The completed canoe would follow this line of contacts until it reached the ongin of the request. Payment may have been made with other ilems of exchange, for example, shell breast-pendants, dugong harpoons. or shell armlets (Haddon,1890:342). Haddon (1890:343) noted that one shell armlet (Fig. 21) would be exchanged for one canoe and that LO shell breast-omaments would have had the same value. Three or four shell breast-orna- ments constituted the annual payment fora canoe. A woman was equivalent in value to one canoe, one dugong harpoon, ora shell armlet. However, value also depended upon quality and so, because no equitable rate of exchange could be stated, these items could not be called ‘money’. Haddon (1890:344) recorded that Maino on Tudu paid 1 camphor wood chest full of trade items, includ- ing: ‘7 bolts (i.e. pieces) of calico, 1 dozen shirts, I dozen Singlets, 1 dozen trousers, ] dozen hand- kerchiefs, 2 dozen tomahawks, 1 lb, tebacco, | CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT long fish spear, 2 fish lines, 1 dozen hooks and 2 pearl shells’ for his wife from Mawatha, This statement documents the process by which European tradestore goods were being sub- Stituted for customary exchange items. This was to have a profound impact on exchange of shells for canoes. The Gudang people of Cape York exchanged $pears and throwing sticks with the Kawrareg into the western islands. Haddon (1890-341), referring to the Macgillivray narrative, noted that other groups on Cape York were hostile to the Kawrareg and that the western Islanders probably had friendly relations with only one or two Australian Aboriginal groups, Warfare seyered friendly exchange relations; when a Dauan woman was killed by Mabuiag micn, the trade of canoes to the western Islands was suspended (Haddon 1904, ¥:316-317), Haxd- don (1904, V:297) noted this trade route ex- tended through the western islands to Saibai. then along the SW coast and into the Fly estuary. Another route passed from the easter islands via Parama into the Fly estuary (Fig. 22). The relative valuc of exchange along each route ts shown in Tables 1 and 2. Payment for canoes was by bailer shells (Melo amphera), conch shells (Syrinx aruanus), dug- ong harpoons, and human mandibles, These were sent from Moa to Mabuiag to Saibai and Mawaitta. Bailer shells, sent to Papua, were ex- changed for cassowary bone daggers, arrows, bamboo knives, and bamboo. Moa people ex- changed small bamboo knives, threaded seeds (Coix sp.) and large sections of bamboo with the Muralug people who then exchanged them to Cape York. Badu and Moa also senthuman skulls ta Tudu in exchange for canoes. Haddon (1908, V1:185}, analysing exchange in the eastern islands, stated that because they are geographically remote, Meriam speaking people were ‘practically removed from intercourse’ with the Aboriginal groups on Cape York, ‘Intra-in- sular trade’ was also not substantial although contact with the western islands was maintained through the central islands. From the castem 1s- lands, shell ornaments such as armlets, pendants, necklaces, nose omaments and pearlshell breast ornaments, along with turtle-shell and presents of food, were sent to Papua. In retum, Islanders obtained cassowary feather headresses, plumes of bird of paradise feathers, dogs' tecth necklaces, pigs” tusks, women's petticoats made from sage palm bast, pandanus mais, cannes, drums, stone- headed clubs, and bows and arrows (Haddon, 1908, Y1:185). Sago, dried then wrapped in banana leaves and bound in bundles encased by the base of the sago palm leaf, was obtained from Parama and Kiwai Islands. Olive shell necklaces were obtained from Nagi, Warraber and Awndh, and turtle-shell, Torres Strait pigeon and reef- heron feathers were obtained from the central islands (Haddon, 1935,I: 183}. The principal trade routes into the eastern Tor- res Strait islands, as recorded by Haddon (1908, VI:185), were Erub, Parama, Mibu to Kiwai Is. (for the purchase of canoes), and Erub, Ugar, Dhamudh, Tudu. and Daru to Mawatta, and oc- casionally to Tureture (Fig.23), While acknow- ledging his debt to John Bruce, schoolteacher and long-term resident on Murray Is, , for information regarding exchange relations in the eastern is- lands, Haddon (1908. V1: 186-187) stated that the Komet clan were the ‘traders in canoes’ for the Murray Islanders. This is the first reference 10 a particular clan or group assumung the role of traders for external economic relations within island communities of eastem Torres Strait, Al- though this division of labour differed from Haddon’s description of trade among the western islanders he offered no explanation as to why it existed only in the eastern islands, Haddon (1935,I:182-183) described trading relationships maintained by friendship ties which, once formed, were never broken. These ties were handed from father to son but by the 1920s and 1930s, such ties were becoming dif- ficult to maintain because of government regula- tions limiling freedom of movement across the national border. The people of Tudu and Yam maintained close association with coastal Papua and ‘joined in the ceremonies at Mawatta’ (Haddon,)935,1:77). Maino on Tudu had married a Papuan woman and other intermarriages were known. The men from Tudu did not travel io Cape York but Islanders from Badu and Moa sent human skulls to Tudu in exchange for canoes while ochre used on ceremonial occasions was obtained from Coco- nut Island [Puruma], Masig and Awridh, and also from down the Queensland coast (Haddon, 1935,1:77). Haddon thought that Awridh was a centre for intra-insular exchange between easter and central Islanders:‘The Miriam-le came in their canoes at certain seasons of the year bring- ing arm-shells which they exchanged for stones for clubs, ochre for painting themselves and their zogo [sacred] stones, turtle grease, and other products. These articles were oblained by the Aurid [Awridh] men as well as by those of Masig, 274 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM PAPUA NEW GUINEA BAMU ESTUARY DIBIRI DOMIRI shelis AUSTRALIA BITURI RIVER BINATURI PAHOTURI fe SOUTHWEST COAST { shells MABUDAWAN shells, turtle shells and dugong shells meat, dugong bd canoes harpoons 2 ERUB pearl « DHAMUDH hell shells, crus dugon, TORRES heh garden foods STRAIT meat” Bf MASIG R om bes canoes canoes 4 : MER, i hi eo iP MABUIAG o> a AWRIDH stone- DAUAR “o WAIER SAS! ? PURUMA headed BADU \ clubs 9 bamboa © WARRABER > PNAGI ° bamboo bows o r) dugong % pear!-shells, harpoons dugong and candes % MURI turtle meat MURALAG ie 2° CAPE YORK ‘ throwing-sticks, spears $ 0 10 20 30 40 50 ote es a aes Sa | PENINSULA 9 KILOMETRES p) FIG, 22. Patterns of customary exchange (Haddon, 1904, V). AUSTRALIA CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT WESTERN ISLANDS MURALAG BADU MABUTAG 4 pieces of iron—* 4 dugong harpoons—® 3 dugong harpoons—1 dugong harpoon —» olive shell —» 20 bailer shells << canoe + canoe << canoe Table 1. Equivalent values (Haddon, 1904, V:296-7). Damut [Dhamudh], and Paremar [Puruma], when they visited the islands off the east coast of North Queensland, particularly the Sir Charles Hardy group, and the Forbes Islands, whither they resorted every south-east season to live for a while and to barter. The stone for making stone-headed clubs was obtained from the Forbes Islands. Aurid and the other islands also traded with New Guinea.’ (Haddon, 1935,1:88). However, because Haddon’s chief informant, Maino, was a central Islander, the composite picture of exchange patterns across Torres Strait developed by Haddon emphasised the central islands (Fig.24). There was no ‘trading’ centre in Torres Strait and the Fly estuary. Perceptions of exchange varied within each cultural group. The composite picture of exchange created by Had- don, based on information collected during the years between field research and publication has distorted the true picture of customary exchange. The missionary, James Chalmers (1903b:117), wrote that the Kiwai people of the Fly River:"... have canoes (pe) with one outrigger. These canoes are chiefly got from Dibiri, on the main- land, near the mouth of the estuary, and on its eastern side. A few of the smaller ones are made by themselves. The large canoes obtained from Dibiri are traded to Parama, Tureture, Kadawa and Mawata [Mawatta]; and they trade them to Saibai, Dauan, Boigu, Mabuiag, Badu, Moa, Prince of Wales, Waraber [Warraber], Damut [Dhamudh], Masig, Stephens Is., Darnley, and Murray. In all these places, the single gives place to a double outrigger, with a platform in the centre, and a large amount of ornamentation fore and aft; these canoes are used for dugong fishing, and for going long journeys’. Chalmers noted that large, good quality canoes were hollowed out at the left bank village near the mouth of the Fly, presumably between Koabu and Balamula: ‘Once I called there, and all along the bank, were quite a hundred large canoes, covered with coconut leaves. My boat’s crew were natives of Ipisia and Saguane [on Kiwai Is.], and, as soon as those ashore saw them, the coconut leaves or pieces of iron shell ornaments 275 SAIBAI MAWATTA FLY RIVER & TURETURE PEOPLE 2 bailer shells necklaces <— canoe <— canoe <— canoe were thrown aside and the canoes exposed for sale. Several of my crew arranged to have canoes, selected by them, sent to their homes, or kept for them until they returned’ (Chalmers,1903b: 123). Human heads, taken in inter-group warfare, were often exchanged for canoes and, while pos- session of skulls increased the social] status of the owners, many were obtained by exchange rather than fighting. Chalmers (1903b:123) stated that young men returned to Kiwai Is. from long stays at Mawatta or Tureture with skulls usually ob- tained through frends. Baxter-Riley (1925: 271) wrote that men went from the Fly River to Ture- ture and Mawatta and purchased heads with canoe hulls and other produce; the exchange rate for a good canoe was two heads. Jiear (1904/1905), when Resident Magistrate at Daru, described the exchange of canoes for barter goods as the most important form of ‘native trading’ in the Western Province. He noted the equivalent exchange value of large and small canoes, not only in terms of exchange objects but also in terms of European tradestore goods (Table 3). This information can be compared with Haddon’s list of relative exchange values for canoes in Torres Strait. Jiear indicated that ex- change transactions were considerably more complex than Haddon had described. Jiear noted that a wider range of customary objects was ex- changed between coastal Kiwai and Bamu es- tuary people. Expeditions from the coastal Kiwai villages of Katatai, Mawatta, Parama, Tureture, and includ- ing Sui, went to Kiwai Island villages of Auti, EASTERN ISLANDS MURRAY / DARNLEY / STEPHENS FLY RIVER AREA { shell armlet —» 2/3 strings olive shells << canoe Table 2. Equivalent values (Haddon, 1908,VI:185). 276 AUSTRALIA KUSSA MAI KUSSA MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM cS PAPUA NEW GUINEA BAMU ESTUARY DIBIRI DOMIRI —- ; = =~ wy i Sy. UMUDA 2S ABAURA FLY ESTUARY BITURI RIVER boars’ tusks, fringes, bird of paradise ‘plumes, cassowary feathers, bows, arrows, canoes, drums, sago, dogs' teeth necklaces, ats, sago bast ORIOMO RIVER BINATURI KADAWA* PARAMA shells PAHOTURI TURETOR RIVER ae canoe, WAT 4 shells SOUTHWEST COAST £49° shells, BOlGU MABUDAWAN turtle-shell, SIGABADURU |, —~ garden foods 7 C7 SAIBAI o UGAR DA UAN canoes ? 3 BURU shells 2 ERUB 4) DHAMUDH shells canoes canoes TORRES 1 ° STRAIT shells & GEBAR y, TUDU i“ << MASIG shells, turtle- e MUKUVA © ZEGEY om & anoes <2 YAM ° MER te, 2 Se aAUlAG 2, AWRIDH DAUAR % waler PURUMA MURI MURALAG g: CAPE YORK a: @¢ q i 0 10 20 30 40 50 APE Y: 2 a ha PS PENINSULA a KILOMETRES AUSTRALIA FIG. 23. Patterns of customary exchange (Haddon, 1908, VI and 1935, I). CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT cS BAMU ESTUARY DIBIRI PAPUA NEW GUINEA DOMIRI TRALIA o Ae Ss SS WABUDA NEES “Ly UMUDA es ABAURA ells FLY ESTUARY BITURI RIVER ORIOMO RIVER canoes BINATURI KADAWA? PARAMA Al shells MAI KUSSA RUv canoes WATTA aA BO80 SOUTHWEST COAST @ UGAR rn canoes “> BURU visiting and ERUB marriage CANOES yy DHAMUDH Ag . XK snes human jaw bones ° STRAIT GEBAR 4— ° —< MASIG human heads gs TUDU ochre é MUKUVA © t= ZEGEY oo. canoes < SASI @ PURUMA stone for clubs, olive shells, \ turtle-shell, white pigeon feathers, reef heron feathers, | ochre, turtle grease o WARRABER MURALAG coix seeds, bamboo ‘red paint’ ¢ ochre 0 10 20 30 40 CAPE YORK PENINSULA a KILOMETRES AUSTRALIA FIG, 24, Patterns of customary exchange (Haddon, 1935,1.). 277 MER ° > YAM * ° a Tr YY, ‘ o, _-WAWRIDH DAUAR % WAIER 50 Tasa and Sumai, as well as the coastal village of Daware, to obtain canoes at the exchange value of one Jarge canoe, 30-65 feet (9-20m) for two large conical armlets, One small canoe of about 12-30 feet (49m) could be obtained with one melon shell, one dugong rib-bone and one full set of dog's teeth. Canoes could be obtained for an equivalent amount of European trade goods. One large canoe could be had for 1 axe, 2 half axes, 1 tomahawk, 3 large knives, 1 pair of trousers. 1 shirt, | woman's dress, 10 yards (9m) of calico, and 1 pound (0.45kg) of tobacco. One small canoe could be obtained for | tomahawk, | large knife, 2 yards (1.9m) of calico and 5 sticks of tobacco. Only part payment was made upon delivery of the canoe, the balance could extend over 5 years (Jicar, 1904/05:70). ‘Canoe buying expeditions’ were sent from the Kiwai Island villages of Agabata [Agoharo}, Agaramuba [Agara Point], Doropodai [U'Uwo], Gibu [Kubira], Ipisia, Kubira, Saguane and Wiorubi (Wapa‘ura] to lower Fly River villages of Baramura [Balamula], Domori, Pisarame (Canoe Is.], Taitainato [Tirio|, and Waripod-oro {Wariobodore], where canoes were made. Ex- change value of | large canoe in the upper Fly estuary Was 3 large conical armlet shells and 3040 large cowre shells UJiear.1904/05:70). A small canoe could be obtained for 5 large cowne shells, and | stnng,c. 3 yards long (2.7m), of small cowne shells. In European trade goods, 1 large canoe could be obtained for 3 axes, 5 half-axes, 12 tomahawks, 6 large knives and | medium sized armshell. A small canoe could be obtained for | tomahawk, J large knife, 2 yards (0.9m) of calico, 10 sticks of tobacco and 1 half- string of cowrie shells Jiear, L945; 70). From the Dameratamu and Gesoa villages on Wabada Is.. people obtained canoes from Bina, Damera |s,. Maipani, Oropai, and Wabada vil- tages in the Bamu estuary where | large canoe exchanged for 2 armlet shells, | string of small cowrle shells, ! pearlshell crescent, and 1 bailer shell for use as a pubic cover and 4 small canoe exchanged for 2 pearlshell crescents, 2 bailer shells, and 1 half-string of smal) cowne shells. A large canoe could also be obtained for 9 tomahawks, I4 large knives, and 6 shirts or 6 singlets (Jiear,1904/05:70). Kiwai Islanders paid in full for canoes obtained trom the lower Fly River as did Wabada Islanders with Bamu and north bank people (Jiear, 1904/05:705. Fly estuary people travelled to Mawatta and Tureture to obtain shells. They exchanged t large MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM pandanus mat and 1 woman's fibre skin for | bailer shell and 1 large trumpet shell. Kiwai Is- landers exchanged sago for bows and arrows at the rate of 1 bundle of sago for 26 arrows of | bow. However, this exchange had been discon- tinued because bows and arrows had ceased to be of importance to Kiwai Islanders following pacification of the coastal and riverine peoples; they were used then only for occasional pig shoot- ing (Jiear, 904/05: 69). Coastal Kiwai peaple in Mawatta and Tureture exchanged fish, turtle, dugong and shells for gar- den produce with their immediate inland neigh- bours, especially the Masingara, Kunini. Dinmo and Irtmisi villages. Jtear believed that this ex- change was declining due to the proximuty of the market in Darw and the fact that inland people had sooflen been cheated by coastal groups. He stated that fishing for food bartering was usually under- taken by the women and he gave, as some indica- tion of the rates of exchange which favoured the coastal fisherman, the following list: 1, 10 pounds [4.5kg] of fish for 1 large bunch of bananas; 2,20 pounds [Ske] of fish for 1 basket, about 60 pounds {27 kg], of taro; 3, LO pounds [4.5kg] of worst quality dugong meat for a 60 pound [27kg] basket of taro; 4, | dugong calf for 2 large pigs; 5, lL large mie}on shell (used for making shell hoe-heads) for 40 bunches of bananas and 10 baskets of taro, estimated at 40) pounds [180kg) Jiear, 1904/05: 70). Exchange values yaned according to de- mand, although at the time Jiear noted these trans- actions, the importance of conical armlet shells in exchange for canoes had not allered and demand for armshells was greater than supply. The Finnish sociologist, Gunnar Landiman (1927) concentrated his research on coastal and riverine peoples from the Pahotun River east and into the Fly region. Landiman did not accurately distinguish between linguistic and cultural Broups in this region and referred to them all as *Kiwai Papuans’. Despite this simplification, Landiman’s data are essential to a study of the exchange relationships between Papuans and Torres Strait (slanders. He (1927:213) stated: “Stace olden times an extensive trade has been carried on berween different parts of the Kiwat region, as wellas between these and the islands of Torres Strait’. From \he inland region of Daudai [PNG] ‘bush’ peoples supplied bird of paradise plumes, cassowanes, parrots, objects made from cassowary bones, bows, arrows, gar- den foods and gamoda (Piper methysticum: *kava’). Kiwai [slanders provided canoes, sago, garden foods, bows and arrows, mats, belts, CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT KIWAT [SLAND COASTAL KIWAT KIWAT ISLAND ——__ large canoe 2 shell armlets ——» 3 armshells ——» 30/40 cowrie shells small canoe { melon shel! ———t } dugong rib 1 set dog's teeth large canoe ) axe 3axes ——e 2 half axes 5 half axes 2 tomahawks 12 tomahawks 3 large knives 6 knives ! pr trousers shirt | dress 10 yds calico { Ib tobacco 1 medium armshel) + 5mal] canoe 1 tomahawk —— | knife 2 yds calico § sticks tobacca 1 tomahawk 1 large knife 2 yds calico 10 sticks tobacco 4 string cowrie she CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE OBJECTS 5 cowrle shel!s ———» 3 yds small cewrie shells EUROPEAN TRADE STORE GOODS —. 279 LOWER FLY RIVER | WABADA ISLAND ESTUARY BAMU ~<— Tarde cance ~_— 2 shell armiets —> 1 string cowrie shells 1 pearl-snell crescent } bailer shell pubic cover large canoe <— smal! canoe <+— sia]! canoe 2 peari-shell crescents 2 bailer shell pubic cavers —» + strina cowrle shells <+— large canoe 4 large canoe 9 tomahawk Ss ———_jae 14 large knives 6 shirts or sinalets smal! canoe + Sal |- Canoe ll Table 3. Equivalent values ( Jiear, 1904/05:70). women’s fibre petticoats, and feathers. Mawatta people supplied coconuts, shells, fish, dugong meat, turtle meat, cassowary bones and dugong bones (Landtman,1927:214). Torres Strait Is- landers supplied coastal people with stone axes, stone clubs, harpoon shafts, various kinds. of shells, and dugong and turtle meal. Landtman emphasised canoes as the principal ems of exchange from Dibiri Is. and the Bamu River region, down into the Torres Strait islands. Goods were exchanged over short distances be- tween peoples wha regarded each other as friends; exchange relations mitigated against inter-group warfare and promoted peaceful rela- tions. Landtman (1927:215) remarked that ex- change transactions, through intermediaries, Were maintained by trust and honesty, and fol- lowed established rules of behayiour. Inter- mediaries regulated exchange and were required to provide subsistence and gifts to those people transporting exchange articles (Landiman,1927: 215; Haddon, 1908, VE 186), Landtman (1927:215) failed to comprehend fully the difference between gift and cammodity exchange when he stated: ‘On the whole we find that in the canoe traffic, as in any other form of barter, there is no clearly marked difference be- meen actual commerce and the exchange of friendly presents’, Landtman did not recognise that, in Melanesia, exchange reinforced social and cultural integration, Gift exchange estab- lished personal relationships between transac- tions, whereas commodity exchange established relationships between the objects transacted (Gregory,1982:41). However, as Landtman (1927:216) stated: ‘Nowadays [1910-12] rhe canoe traffic has greatly decreased and very few of the craft are sentany longer to Torres Straits’. This decline in canoe ‘traffic’ and subsequent interruption to contacts between Islanders and Papuans Were due to administrative regulations limiting travel. Macgregor (191 1:4) reported that government regulations were responsible for this interruption: “Formerly Murray Island had a brisk trade with the New Guinea coast from the Fly River westward. This was carried out direct- ly, but was conducted by a privileged tribe at Murray Island, through Darnley island, and then by Darnley through Warrior Island. In this tedious and round about way the Murray Is- landers obtained their canoes fram New Guinea, and the Papuans obtained their shell ornaments, &c. Butall that has been brought to.an end by the Customs barrier that has been rigidly maintained during the last half score of years between the Commonwealth and Papua. This rupture ef an- cient intercourse has been much felt at Murray Island, and ar other places in the Straits’. Beaver (1920:75), who spent 11 years in the colonial administration. believed that Mawatta 280 acted as a trading and distribution centre on the SW coast, and noted that Mawatta and Tureture people traded surplus fish and sea foods with Masingara people for garden foods. Tureture traded with other inland villages such as Dirimu and Irimisi. Sago was brought from Kiwai Island as this was not made at Mawatta; exchange was 1 bundle of sago for 1 bow and 20 arrows (Beaver, 1920: 76). From Torres Strait came shell armlets, pearl-shell breast omaments, dugong harpoons, nose ornaments, and small pieces of iron. In return, drums, arrows, bird of paradise plumes, [cassowary?] feathers, boars’ tusks, and sago were sent to the islands. Beaver (1920:75) recorded that some pigment earths (ochre), bas- kets and woven armlets were imported from the Wassi Kussa region near Boigu. From the Fly estuary pandanus mats, and women’s fibre pet- ticoats were traded for melon shells and conch shells. Canoes were the most important items of trade (Beaver, 1920:76). Mawatta and Tureture acted as buyers for the islands but, as a rule, Saibai obtained canoes from the Fly estuary via Mawatta while the eastern Islanders obtained canoes via Parama Island. Kiwai Islanders acted as middle- men in the trade of canoes between the principal canoe building areas of Daumori, Pisarame (Canoe Is. near Lewada), Balamula, Taitiarato (Tirio) on the southern bank of the Fly River mouth, and Wariabodoro (near Teopopo) on the northern bank of the Fly estuary. Canoes from Dibiri, near the Bamu River delta, were traded through Wabuda. ‘For a sixty feet [18m] canoe three very large armshells and thirty large cow- ries might be paid, for a small canoe five large and a fathom [c. 2m string of shells] of small cowries. European goods are now largely used in the purchase price, One large canoe would cost, for example, three axes, five half-axes, a dozen tomahawks and one armshell ; indeed the latter is an essential to the bargain’ (Beaver, 1920: 164-165). Beaver probably obtained some of his information (Fig. 25) from sources such as Had- don (1904,1908) and Jiear (1904/05). Since Landtman contributed a chapter to Beaver’s book, and they both worked out of Daru between 1910 and 1912, it is likely that they exchanged information and corresponded with each other. McCarthy (1939:183-184) concluded his ex- amination of ‘trade connections’ between Cape York and Torres Strait by repeating Haddon’s suppositions, reinforced by material obtained from Landtman. This argument was that Saibai and Mawatta were the principal centres for con- MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM verging Torres Strait and coastal Papuan ex- change routes. McCarthy (1939:185-186) had personal communication with Leo Austen, a patrol officer and resident magistrate in Daru between 1919 and 1924; his first hand informa- tion adds to European perceptions of Torres Strait trade and supplements that provided by Jiear (1904/05). Austen (McCarthy,1939:185) stated that the Kiwai speaking villagers along the Mawatta to Parama coast near Daru maintained trading links with Saibai, Boigu and Dauan but that people of these villages, notably Parama, Katatai, Tureture and Mawatta had kinship links not only with Saibai, Boigu and Dauan, but also with Yam and Murray Is. (Fig.26). After establishment in 1891, the Kiwai-speaking village of Mabudawan, be- came the centre of trade from Torres Strait and other coastal villages. Saibai, Dauan, and Boigu have limited garden- ing land and these Islanders obtained garden foods and nipa palm, for use in house thatching, from the mainland. Canoes were obtained along the coast from the Fly River. The coastal people around Daru were the main agents in the move- ment of canoes from Wabuda and the Bamu estuary, and then into the Torres Strait. Austen (McCarthy,1939:186) believed that pearlshells and cowrie shells from Torres Strait were sent via villages on Daru as far east as Goaribari Is. north of the Bamu River, in part payment for canoes, although European tools, particularly iron axes and knives, were also in demand. McCarthy (1939:189) added that these shells eventually passed inland and up the Fly River into the PNG highlands. In summarizing trade connections across Torres Strait, McCarthy (1939:190) stated that trade routes from Cape York passed through the western and central is- lands into PNG via Saibai and Mawatta. A second route from eastern Cape York passed through the eastern islands and Parama to coastal Kiwai vil- lages in the Fly estuary. Trade routes radiated from Saibai and Mawatta, west along the coast to the present Indonesian border, and east through the Fly estuary to Dibiri. Trade routes moved inland to the middle and upper Fly and Strickland Rivers. ‘A local inter-village bartering, and canoe trade between distant points, exists along the coast of Papua from the Fly estuary to far eastern New Guinea’ (McCarthy, 1939:190) (Fig.27). Gabey (1949), a Murray Islander, wrote that, in former times, shells were the most valuable ex- change item of Torres Strait Islanders. Armlet CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT 281 BAMU ESTUARY PAPUA NEW GUINEA DIBIRI DOMIAI AUSTRALIA BITURI canoes oe ea8 UMUDA RIVER ord ABAURA canoes FLY ESTUARY garden foods SU] pandanus leaf mats, women's ‘grass' petticoats, Sago, canoes fis WR BINATURI YP MRAMA RIVE ‘Al ORIOMO * RIVER fish ASOTURI qugerune™ 2) RIVE! MAWATTA ~~ BOBO laces ;: 7 SOUTHWEST COAST baskets, GU ABUDAWAN armiets, SIGABADURU / shells ochre shells v SAIBAI © UGAR DAUAN z canoes S ani drums, DHAMUDH @ ERUB arrows, | feathers, i bird of paradise | boars' tusks, TORRES plumes | sago STRAIT S GEBAR » TUDU MURI MURALAG Ins @: CAPE YORK eS ? $ 0 10 20 30 40 50 CAPE YORK FEN IpULS iad KILOMETRES: AUSTRALIA FIG, 25. Patterns of customary exchange (Beaver, 1920). 282 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM YS ‘eis ESTUARY PAPUA NEW GUINEA DIBIRI ‘trade’ from the Gulf region &L UMUDA oT aABAURA DOMIRI AUSTRALIA BITURI RIVER FLY ESTUARY DHAMUDH™\ ° < MASIG ° MUKUVA bia & ZEGEY og ‘ =< YAM © /canoes ‘ MER iP MABUIAG a, AWRIDH knives DAUAR “> WaleR Shells, pearl-shells, SAS] gherig "URUMA BADU, pony iron axes, iron axes; kni vas o ° rs ° a % © WARRABER “2 @naci o * 8 oO ry a oe, wiyBen 2 o > MURI MURALAG A * CAPE YORK Ree RES KINSHIP TIES o 10 20 30 40 50 CAPE YORK PENINSULA KILOMETRES AUSTRALIA FIG. 26. Patterns of customary exchange (Austen in McCarthy, 1939), CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT shells were used in negotiations for canoes, sago and women. They could only be worn by people of high status. A secondary use was as payment for sorcery in putting another man to death. The second most valuable shells, bailer shells (Melo sp.), were found on reefs or obtained from central Islanders through exchange for food; they were used as cooking utensils, for storage of water or for bailing water from canoes, and their flesh was eaten (Gabey, 1949:2). Clam shells (Tridacna sp.) were used as rain water containers and the flesh was also eaten. Bu shells (Syrinx sp.) were used as trumpets for signalling fighting or dancing. Pearlshells (Pinctada sp.), mostly found in the western islands, were used as ornaments. Nautilus shells (Nautilus pompilius) were used as drinking containers and as artificial eyes for the dead. Gabey (1949:3) stated that the best canoes came from Papua because of the lack of suitable canoe timber on Torres Strait islands. However, Murray Islanders made small canoes using local cotton trees (possibly Bombax sp.). Contact between Papuans and eastern Islanders was still evident in the late 1950s. Hall (1957:17) wrote: ‘Canoes from the Papuan side come south with sago and those pencil thin sticks of tobacco ... the older Torres Strait islander prefers this type of smoke, and he will trade pearl-shell, calico, fishhooks or any other item in the trade store for these molasses-soaked, saltpetre-impregnated sticks of tobacco that burn slowly with a frightful smell.’ Internal dynamics of the exchange system which operated through the western islands have not been documented. Most attention centred on descriptions of movements of goods from place to place and on recording objects of exchange. In general, exchange took place between estab- lished exchange partners. Haddon (1904,V:296) wrote that exchange among western Islanders was through known friends and relatives such that: ‘/fa Muralug man wanted a canoe he would communicate with a relative at Moa who would speak to a friend of his at Badu ..’. These links between kin and between friends, transcended linguistic and political divisions. Dynamics of the exchange system of the east- ern Islanders were described in more detail by Haddon (1908, VI:186), Macgregor (1911) and Laade (1969a, 1973). Macgregor (191 1:4) noted that people of Mer formerly conducted a brisk trade with coastal Papuans west of the Fly es- tuary, and through a ‘privileged tribe at Murray Island’, obtained canoes in exchange for shell ornaments. This exchange, he stated, had been 283 curtailed since about 1900 by the imposition of customs regulations and had become a matter of concern on Mer, although Hall (1957:17) remarked that contact between Papuans and Is- landers was still much in evidence 50 years later. Haddon (1908, VI:186) first wrote of the inter- nal structure of exchange relations in the eastern islands that enabled control of external exchange to pass exclusively through the hands of one clan, the Komet. This differed significantly from other islands. Only the Komet could obtain canoes from Papua for other Islanders and it was the Komet clan who journeyed to New Guinea to conduct exchange on behalf of eastern Islanders. According to Laade (1969a: 36), the Komet, who lived from Zaub to Larte on the NW beach side of Mer, were known as ‘front side people’ or people belonging to the water. The Komet were traders and fishermen (Laade, 1969a:37); they exchanged fish for garden foods produced by other clans on Mer. The Komet-le controlled trade, especially in canoes, with the Papuan coast from Murray, to Darnley, then through Stephen Is. to Papua. Papuan canoes came south late in the NW monsoon season (March/April); canoes, drums, bows and arrows, cassowary feathers and bird of paradise plumes returned with the commencement of SE trade winds (May/June). Laade (1969a:37) stated that Papuans also brought ‘arrow-proof "shirts" (bisi om)’. How- ever, this should be interpreted as sago palm (bisi) bast (ome) which, in former times, was used as skirts by Torres Strait Islander women. The Mur- ray Islanders gave in exchange mostly shells and in particular armshells (Conus sp.). Laade (1969a:37) wrote: ‘The Komet-le were the sailors and intermediaries travelling fram Mer to Darnley or Stephens Islands to do trading. As expert sailors, the Komet men were also experts in astronomy and meteorology’. While the Komet-le regulated trade with Papua, Laade (1969a:38-39) reported that they did not engage in inter-insular exchange with central Islanders. This, apparently, was the special preserve of the Piebre or Dauer people who were fishermen and lived on the sandy beach front of Murray Is. facing SE. They hosted central Islanders, espe- cially those from Yam, Puruma, Awridh, Nagi and Masig, who came regularly to Mer to obtain garden foods in exchange for shells, fish and turtle meat. Laade (1969a:39) stated that the stone used in stone-headed clubs and adzes was im- ported from New Guinea but an informant of his from Puruma stated that Islanders from Warraber 284 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM BAMU ESTUARY SY viBir PAPUA NEW GUINEA ~~. DOMIRI AUSTRALIA BITURI RIVER OY ABAURA ORIOMO + SUI RIVER BINATURI KADAWA» ARAMA \piver 2 ES ATA K bile PAHOTURI TURETURE BUuI RIVER Wy” MAWATTA BOBO =a SOUTHWEST COAST MABUDAWAN SIGABADURU w © UGAR DAUAN 17 £ = BURU @ ERUB ¢ DHAMUDH utd TORRES seh * STRAIT ° = MASIG % GEBAR o wuwuva\, S2EGEY ens \ ’ YAM ? Yow, 2 * MABUIAG AIDH DAUAR % > MURI 2: CAPE YORK 0 10 20 30 40 CAPE YORK PENINSULA @ KILOMETRES AUSTRALIA a FIG. 27. Patterns of customary exchange (McCarthy, 1939). CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT and Puruma travelled as tar south as Lizard Is.. cast of Cape York, to obtain clubstones, Central Islanders were the trading link between the east- ern and western islands and Cape York. Thus black (charcoal), red and white ‘paint’ clays (nchres), arrows and Torres Strait pigeon feathers were traded from Cape York through Muri, Nagi, Gebar, Yam, Punima, Awridh, Dauar and Mer. Laade (1969a:40), quoting Sam Passi, a foomer chairman of Mer. reported that the last major central island trading expedition to the castem islands was in L919. Haddon (1908,VI186) described the internal dynamics of exchanging armlet shells for canoes on Mer. First, a man who desired a canoe pres- ented a member of the Komet clan with a shell armlet as part payment. Together with sup- plementary objects, such as shell ornaments and food, which were used as payments for middle- men, armicts were taken by the Komet clan to Papua. Following the receipt of the armlet, the canoe maker or vendor in Kiwai cut a long bam- boo pole attached to which were placed retum gifts, such as dance objects, feathers and plumes. dogs’ teeth necklaces. boars” tusks, fringes and skirts, mats, bows and arrows. and other ex- change objects, This pole, called in Menam a seker Ju, was sent to the canoe purchaser, The canoe purchaser and the intermediary removed any obligation to each other by cutting a cord. This complex system of interlocking exchange relationships consolidated inter-group and inter- island relationships. Although exchange processes in the Fly estuary and coastal Papua were not specifically described, Landtman (1927:214—215) noted that intermediaries in the exchange system received articles as gifts and substituted other articles for them. Payment for a canoe was made in instal- ments and such payments continued over the life of the canoe Which acknowledged the continuing good services of the canoe. When ihe canoe was destroyed or broken up, a final gift of a shell armlet or dogs’ teeth necklace, together with a portion of the old canoe, was sent to acknowledge completion of the obligation (Landtman, 1927: 214). The custom of intermediaries extracting por- lions of the gifts exchanged and substituting other pifts, but most notably food, enyphasised collec- tive community involvement in exchange. Canoes were collectively owned, collectively used and required for collective well-being. Maintaining the common good and strengthening inter-group relations through customary gift 285 giving was vital in preserving this communal well-being, Internal dynamics of exchange among eastem Islanders and coastal Papuans were complementary. ‘The peoples of the Torres Strait Islands [and adjacent coasts] were neither polirically united nar culturally homogeneous. .. Varied though they were. the communities of the Islands were geared toone another through raiding, ritual and trade? (Beckett, 1972:308), Each Torres Strait community exploited natural resources in its own area but, through intra-insular exchange as far as PNG and Cape York, was able to exploit resources of a wider region. Patterns of exchange were sel by availability of foodstuffs and manne resources and access to other communities. Canoes were vital to survival of Torres Strait communities, Summarizing the pre-European contact ex~ change system, Beckett (1972:316) noted that goods from Papua included cance hulls, bows, arrows, drums, feathers and pigments while from Cape York came woods and red ochre. These items circulated amongst the Torres Strait islands together with garden foods, sea foods, harpoons, shells and human heads. in former times, western Islanders in particular, exchanged human heads for canoes but eastern Islanders traded shells (notably Conus sp.) for canoes (Fig,28), Beck- ett's statement (1972:317) that Kiwai speaking people of coastal Papua may have preferred gar- dening to fishing, providing others supplied the turtle and dugong, is not accurate for the coastal Kiwaj are principally fishermen. He correctly stated that the key to pattems of exchange across Torres Strait was a division of labour and resource allocation that made exchange an economically and socially viable occupation. Integration of small.economically independent houscholds was necessary for economic survival and, particularly in the eastern islands, this was offsel by large scale interdependence in ritual, mamiage and organisation of exchange (Beckett, 1972:323; 1987:115). Torres Strait communities coexisted With limited, but necessary, inter- change. Baldwin (1976:14) correctly stated the objec tive of exchange:'Viewed functionally, the primary econenic purpose of the Torres Strait Jrade system was to distribute resources among the diverse human habitats of the region, In other words, the system enabled goods plentiful in one locality to be exported ta ather localities where these same goods were scarce and therefore valuable’, He emphatically stated that specific 286 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM BAMU ESTUARY PAPUA NEW GUINEA DIBIRI DOMIRI ABO o> Bios ipo ci SE “Ly UMUDA ads ABAURA FLY ESTUARY AUSTRALIA BITURI RIVER MAI KUSSA canoe hulls, bows, arrows, \ drums, feathers, pigments = BURU canoes TORRES 9 DHAMUDH heads ° GEBAR ° << MASIG a * p Hee ° canoes ee ad CZEGEY , " «oe YAM o r 2 MER “4p. mee AWRIDH DAUAR “% waleR < SASI ? PURUMA ope ses . (ue) (wo) oe WARRABER pigments, feathers, drums, garden > os foods, sea foods and fish, harpoons, ae shells, human heads, canoes, bows, arrows, wood for harpoons and Spears, red ochre wood for spgars and harpoons, red ochre o MURALAG o 10 20 30 40 «650 CAPE YORK PENINSULA 9 KILOMETRES AUSTRALIA FIG, 28. Patterns of customary exchange (Beckett, 1972). CUSTOMARY EXCHANGE ACROSS TORRES STRAIT trade routes were recognized and that the formal structure of the trade system that operated in the region involved hereditary trading partnerships and standardized exchange rates. He repeated the belief that villages such as Parama, Tureture and Mawatta acted as coastal trading centres and he was convinced that western and central Islanders served as middlemen in a long distance move- ment of goods between Australia and PNG and that movement of dugong and turtle meat from Torres Strait into coastal and Fly estuary areas, and movement of sago in the reverse direction, was based on the same habitat contrasts that governed trade in ornaments, canoes and weapons (Baldwin, 1976:14—-16). Baldwin (1976:16) speculated that eastern Is- landers were intimidated from making exchange contacts with Cape York Aboriginal groups by headhunting practices of central and western Is- landers. There may have been other reasons for the lack of contact between eastern Islanders and Cape York Aborigines. The eastern islands were relatively resource rich, and contact with Papuans of the SW coast was considerably easier and more economically advantageous. Because eastern Is- landers had been sighted as far south as Temple Bay, their contacts may have been with Aborig- inal groups further south rather than those living at the tip of the peninsula. Baldwin also speculated on the role of head- hunting in Torres Strait: *... the reason head-hunt- ing was so popular among the Torres Strait islanders was not only because heads were valu- able trade items in New Guinea, but also because such activity tended to discourage or eliminate competition in the trade system.’ It was Baldwin’s opinion that Cape York Aboriginal groups were unable to come into direct long-lasting contact with eastern Islanders who practised extensive horticulture and that the Torres Strait, therefore, acted as a ‘cultural filter’, allowing certain cultural traits to pass from PNG into Australia via Cape York, while blocking the movement of other cultural practices. He sup- ported this argument with the example of the limited practice of horticultural activities through the western islands into Cape York (Baldwin, 1976:16). This argument neglects the relative lack of fertility and seasonality of climate of the western islands and of Cape York that inhibits horticulture. It also discounts the fact that Abo- riginal people could make a considered choice of lifestyle. In the mid-nineteenth century there was a broad north-south subsistence gradient across Torres Strait moving from a reliance on gardening to a reliance on foraging. Variations in the economies of western island communities related to inter-is- land differences in resource availability, patterns of community organization, socio-economic ex- change and population densities (Harris,1979: 84). ‘At the local, intra-community scale contact was frequent and informal; at the immediate, inter-community scale it was less frequent and more formalized; and at the regional island- mainland scale it took the form of systematized trade.’ (Harris, 1979:85). Thus the long distance trade network spanned Torres Strait and allowed movement of products manufactured from resources obtained in dif- ferent environments, either on the mainlands or the islands; these products constituted the prin- cipal objects of exchange. In the inter-island sphere the main objective of exchange was distribution of resources and, within each insular allied group, one specific island became the base for intensive horticulture (Harris,1979:86). In the west, these islands were Dauan, Mabuiag and Nagi. Each practised inten- sive horticulture and was, in the pre-European contact period, at a critical point in the long-dis- tance trade network (Harris, 1979: 104). Exchange therefore encouraged and stimulated horticulture and the manufacture of items favoured in the exchange system. This participation further stimulated social and economic specialization during the nineteenth century (Harris, 1979:105). The model of inter-insular social and eco- nomic integration (Fig.29) developed by Harris (1979) provided a model of socio-economic regularities which united indigenous economies of the western islands during the mid-nineteenth century. It emphasises the study of patterns of exchange between integrated groups of islands. Historical literature constructs a framework of reference against which oral evidence, and an hypothesis of interaction patterns. Historical evidence provides invaluable details and descrip- tions of a wide variety of exchange items and it is from the historical literature that a full list of the material culture of the Torres Strait and Fly estuary ‘canoe traffic’ can be extracted. Early European perceptions of indigenous ex- change in the Torres Strait and Fly estuary region, as extracted from historical documentary sour- ces, were based on observations, usually made at irregular intervals, by travellers, sailors, mis- sionaries and officials whose knowledge of the social and economic life of the people of the region was only superficial. 288 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM 0 PAPUA NEW GUINEA BAMU ESTUARY DIBIRI DOMIRI ABO = SE =