2.8.5 Torres Strait trade The farmers and fishers of the Torres Strait Islands had extra food at certain times of the year. Turtle and dugong could be dried, stored and traded with nearby clans in Cape York and Papua New Guinea.
SOURCE5 Illustration detailing dugout canoes with two sails which were used to transport people and trade goods between the Torres Strait Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Australian mainland.
Trade was very important for survival on the Torres Strait Islands. The Torres Strait Islander Peoples got their fishing and transport canoes through trade with the Saibai Peoples from Papua New Guinea’s Fly River area. The trees needed for the construction of the canoes don’t grow on the Torres Strait Islands. The Saibai traded with canoe builders who lived up the river in forests. They changed their single outrigger canoes, good for lagoons, into double outrigger canoes for rough seas. They added masts and woven nipa-palm sails. Torres Strait Islander Peoples traded shellfish, dried fish, turtle and dugong for these new canoes, drums, sago , bows and arrows, and feathers from cassowary and birds of paradise. 2.8.6 Tools and technology Over thousands of years, the climate changed, affecting where people could find water and food. After the Ice Age, rising seas covered land, so people had to adapt. They didn’t just react to changes — they also made the land better for farming. In a process we call intensification , they used fire to help grow plants like millet, fruit and nuts. They created tools like stone axes and picks, some of which are over 50 000 years old and were traded across southeastern Australia.
48 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator