2.9.3
Managing the land in the Torres Strait Islands
Farming practices In ancient times, farming was done in the Torres Strait Islands. Crops and farming knowledge came from Papua New Guinea. Early Torres Strait communities grew many different crops based on each island’s land and conditions. • People on the islands near Papua New Guinea relied on farming for food. They mainly grew taro and also planted bananas on nearby uninhabited islands, away from tidal swamps. • On the islands to the northeast, where the volcanic soil was wet and rich, people grew coconuts, taro, bananas, and many smaller fruits and vegetables. • People on islands like Muralag, near the Australian mainland, practised limited farming. They grew some taro, but most of their food came from the sea. The rocky islands didn’t have good soil or climate for farming, so they relied on hunting and gathering. Fishing practices Even though the Torres Strait Islands had different landscapes and ocean conditions, all communities lived from the sea. People who farmed also went fishing for food and resources. The shallow waters, complex tropical reef systems and huge beds of seagrass created a thriving marine ecosystem .
SkillBuilder discussion Using historical sources 1. Read SOURCE5 .What activities were women and children involved in? 2. What did the men hunt? 3. Why do you think the reefs would have been very important to the islands of the Torres Strait?
SOURCE5 Shows fishing practices that early Torres Strait Islander Peoples used. This source is adapted from a 1912 report by A. C. Haddon and W. H. R. Rivers.
At low tide, men, women and children search the reef for shellfish and fish trapped in rock pools. Women and children mostly do this collecting. Serious fishing, like hunting dugong and turtle, is done by men. Women usually fish only on the reef around their home island.
Source: Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the birth of agriculture , Magabala Books, 2014.
Torres Strait Islander Peoples made many tools for fishing, like harpoons, spears, hooks and nets. They built stone fish traps and caught over 450 types of sea life. They dried and preserved dugong and turtle meat for later use and trading. Dugong and turtle were important in their diet and creation stories.
Did you know? Mainland Aboriginal Peoples fished, but Tasmanian Peoples stopped fishing about 3500 years ago and collected shellfish instead. Torres Strait Islander Peoples used harpoons for fishing, while people on the mainland used spears. Some spears had a barb from a stingray, and others were made with human hair.
2.9 SkillBuilder activity USING HISTORICAL SOURCES Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples practised aquaculture. The huge Darling River Fish Traps might be the oldest human-made structures on Earth. The remains of weirs, clay dykes, irrigation systems, fish nets with floats and weights, whale fishing boats and tools are all evidence of this. Now, think about the Gunditjmara Peoples from Lake Condah in Victoria. Early Europeans, like escaped convict William Buckley, saw their fish traps, which were built before the Egyptian pyramids. To learn more, read SOURCE6 .
54 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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