Adding Value: Rethinking Late 19th-Century Torres Strait Islander Drawings in Anthropological Inquiry

This article focuses on the cultural and artistic value of a collection of Torres Strait Islander drawings that were commissioned and collected in the late 19th century. I argue that these drawings, made during Alfred C. Haddon's “salvage anthropology” expeditions, can provide insight into the nature of Islander graphic systems and the production of contemporary Islander art. By focusing on stylistic links between the drawings and other forms of decorative art, and their role as resources and inspiration for contemporary Islander artists, I explore the role these collections play in investigating regional artistic traditions, and how they act as agents in reaffirming Islander identity.     

Collection of wind-borne haematophagous insects in the Torres Strait,Australia

Circumstantial evidence has implicated wind-borne mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in the introduction of Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus into Australia from the New Guinea mainland. A study was initiated on Saibai Island in the northern Torres Strait, during January and February 2000, to identify the potential source of insects collected in aerial (kytoon) and surface-level traps. Wind speed and direction were recorded to determine wind profiles during insect sampling. Northerly winds capable of carrying insects from New Guinea to Saibai Island were only present on three out of 18 nights sampled. Only three male mosquitoes, comprising two Verrallina funerea (Theobald) and one Ochlerotatus vigilax (Skuse), were collected in aerial samples, and were most likely of local origin. Culicoides midges were also collected in aerial nets and included gravid/parous C. bundyensis Lee and Reye, and one parous C. histrio Johannsen. Highest densities of arthropods (up to 1562/million m3) were on 30 January 2000 when NW winds, sustained for six hours, probably introduced midges from the New Guinea mainland. Adult mosquitoes (including three female Ve. funerea and a single female Ficalbia) and Culicoides (including two gravid C. bundyensis and one parous C. cordiger Macfie) were also collected in 2 m high mast nets during northerly surface winds. Although the results do not provide evidence that wind-blown mosquitoes introduced JE from New Guinea into Australia, they do not preclude that strong N winds associated with low pressure systems SW of the Torres Strait could have done so. However, results suggest that Culicoides were more likely than mosquitoes to reach high altitude and travel long distances during the light N winds experienced during the study.     

A palynological investigation of Holocene vegetation change in Torres Strait, seasonal tropics of northern Australia

The islands of Torres Strait occupy a shallow area of submerged continental shelf narrowly separating Cape York Peninsula, Australia, from New Guinea. The human history of Torres Strait is unique with respect to mainland northern Australia. Island vegetation, however, exhibits a strong affinity with the environments of the western lowlands regions of Cape York Peninsula and with the vegetation of seasonal tropical Australia in general. Cape York Peninsula is both climatically and biologically diverse, yet few pollen studies have been carried out in its seasonally tropical environments. A summary presentation of palynological results, tracing the nature of vegetation change in Torres Strait, offers a possible framework for vegetation changes in similar environments on mainland Australia and also provides an opportunity to explore the relationship between Quaternary change in humid-tropical Australian environments and their seasonal-tropical counterparts.Six pollen records from Torres Strait provide evidence of vegetation change and fire history over approximately the last 8000 years. Near-shore sediments reveal a Holocene succession in vegetation incorporating lower-tidal mangrove, upper-tidal mangrove, saltmarsh and freshwater swamp communities. Extensive stable mangrove communities dominated coastal Torres Strait between approximately 6000 and 3000 radiocarbon years before present (yr BP). Inland, the strongest Myrtaceae-forest and rainforest representation occurs around the mid-Holocene only to be replaced by open sclerophyll woodlands, as tree density and diversity decline in the last 3000 years. The development of continuous island freshwater swamp conditions, at the coast and inland, is similarly restricted to the late Holocene (c. 2600 yr BP) and fire, as a prominent feature in the Torres Strait environment, is also a relatively recent phenomenon. Comparisons with regional mainland Australian palynological records reveal a degree of consistency in results from Torres Strait suggesting a similarity in late Quaternary trends through Australian humid and seasonally tropical environments. A number of differences, however, are also apparent, highlighting a degree of diversity which warrants further attention.     

A Novel Approach to Tradition: Torres Strait Islanders and Ion Idriess

This paper considers the significance of the novel Drums of Mer (1941) in contemporary Torres Strait Islanders' lives. Its use as narrative by many Islanders today constitutes one means by which men especially have come to know themselves, white others, and their past. In particular, I explore the ways in which this story appeals to and is appealed to by Yam Island people. Contrary to literary deconstructions of Idriess's representations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, my paper argues that in seriously attending to Torres Strait readings of Drums of Mer we can see that for contemporary Islander readers, it is not themselves who are other but rather the white protagonists. I employ Said's (1994) notion of ‘cultural overlap’ and de Certeau's (1988) understandings of reading and writing as ‘everyday practices’ to frame my analysis of the differing impacts of the historical novel, Drums of Mer, and the Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits. It is through story telling that Yam Island selves are placed in the past and the present, and in Idriess's memorable story a similar effect is achieved. In his novel approach, the past becomes his-story, a romanticised refraction of the Reports. Unlike the Reports, this novel is a sensual rendering of a Torres Strait past, and at this level it operates as a mnemonic device for Yam Island people, triggering memories and the imagination through the senses. This Torres Strait Islander detour by way of a past via a story, can be understood as a means by which Yam Island people continue to actively produce powerful images of themselves, for both themselves and for others.     

Community Management of Endemic Scabies in Remote Aboriginal Communities of Northern Australia: Low Treatment Uptake and High Ongoing Acquisition

Background

Scabies and skin infections are endemic in many Australian Aboriginal communities. There is limited evidence for effective models of scabies treatment in high prevalence settings. We aimed to assess the level of treatment uptake amongst clinically diagnosed scabies cases and amongst their household contacts. In addition, we aimed to determine the likelihood of scabies acquisition within these households over the 4 weeks following treatment provision.

Methods and Findings

We conducted an observational study of households in two scabies-endemic Aboriginal communities in northern Australia in which a community-based skin health program was operating. Permethrin treatment was provided for all householders upon identification of scabies within a household during home visit. Households were visited the following day to assess treatment uptake and at 2 and 4 weeks to assess scabies acquisition among susceptible individuals. All 40 households in which a child with scabies was identified agreed to participate in the study. Very low levels of treatment uptake were reported among household contacts of these children (193/440, 44%). Household contacts who themselves had scabies were more likely to use the treatment than those contacts who did not have scabies (OR 2.4, 95%CI 1.1, 5.4), whilst males (OR 0.6, 95%CI 0.42, 0.95) and individuals from high-scabies-burden households (OR 0.2, 95%CI 0.08, 0.77) were less likely to use the treatment. Among 185 susceptible individuals, there were 17 confirmed or probable new diagnoses of scabies recorded in the subsequent 4 weeks (9.2%). The odds of remaining scabies-free was almost 6 times greater among individuals belonging to a household where all people reported treatment uptake (OR 5.9, 95%CI 1.3, 27.2, p = 0.02).

Conclusion

There is an urgent need for a more practical and feasible treatment for community management of endemic scabies. The effectiveness and sustainability of the current scabies program was compromised by poor treatment uptake by household contacts of infested children and high ongoing disease transmission.     

Benefits of swimming pools in two remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia: intervention study

Objective To determine the health impact of swimming pools built with the aim of improving quality of life and reducing high rates of pyoderma and otitis media.Design Intervention study assessing prevalence of ear disease and skin infections before and at six monthly intervals after opening of swimming pools.Setting Two remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.Participants 84 boys and 78 girls aged < 17 years.Main outcome measures Changes in prevalence and severity of pyoderma and perforation of tympanic membranes with or without otorrhoea over 18 months after opening of pools.Results In community A, 61 children were seen before the pool was opened, and 41, 46, and 33 children were seen at the second, third, and fourth surveys. Equivalent figures for community B were 60, 35, 39, and 45. Prevalence of pyoderma declined significantly from 62% to 18% in community A and from 70% to 20% in community B during the 18 months after the pools opened. Over the same period, prevalence of severe pyoderma fell from 30% to 15% in community A and from 48% to 0% in community B. Prevalence of perforations of the tympanic membrane fell from 32% in both communities to 13% in community A and 18% in community B. School attendance improved in community A.Conclusion Swimming pools in remote communities were associated with reduction in prevalence of pyoderma and tympanic membrane perforations, which could result in long term benefits through reduction in chronic disease burden and improved educational and social outcomes.     

Haemoparasites of free-roaming dogs associated with several remote Aboriginal communities in Australia

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Tick-borne haemoparasites Babesia vogeli and Anaplasma platys are common among the free-roaming canine populations associated with Aboriginal communities in Australia, whilst the prevalence of haemoplasmas, which are also suspected to be tick-borne, remained unexplored. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of haemoplasma infection in these populations, and to identify any correlation with other haemoparasites. Blood was collected from 39 dogs associated with four Aboriginal communities and screened for infection using PCR and serology. DNA was purified and PCR analyses for piroplasms, Anaplasmataceae family bacteria and haemoplasmas performed. Serum was analysed using a commercial haemoparasite ELISA. Prevalence of infection was compared between communities. RESULTS: Seventeen dogs (44 %) were infected (PCR positive) with Mycoplasma haemocanis, eight (21 %) with 'Candidatus Mycoplasma haematoparvum', 20 (51 %) with A. platys, and 17 (44 %) with B. vogeli. Two dogs were infected with a novel haemoplasma as determined by DNA amplification and sequencing. Two dogs (5 %) were serologically positive for Dirofilaria immitis antigens, one (3 %) was positive for Ehrlichia canis antibodies and nine (24 %) were positive for A. platys antibodies. Co-infections were frequent. Haemoplasma prevalence was highest (73 %, 16/22) in Central Australia and lowest (22 %, 2/9) in Western Australia (p = 0.017). In contrast, B. vogeli prevalence was low in Central Australia (18 %, 4/22) but higher (78 %, 7/9) in Western Australia (p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first time haemoplasma infections, including a novel species, have been molecularly documented in Australian dogs. The wide regional variation in prevalence of some of the haemoparasite infections detected in this study warrants further investigation.     

Compulsory Pilotage in International Straits: The Torres Strait PSSA Proposal

At a time when the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) concept is under intense scrutiny by IMO member states, Australia and Papua New Guinea jointly proposed an extension to the existing Great Barrier Reef PSSA to include the waters of the Torres Strait. As a measure to protect this PSSA, a compulsory pilotage regime was proposed for adoption by the IMO. This article analyzes the Torres Strait proposal and, in particular, the reaction by many IMO member states to the proposal for compulsory pilotage in a strait used for international navigation. Consideration is given to the legal basis for such a measure and the options available to the proposing states to implement a pilotage regime in the Torres Strait.     

Aboriginal man as an exterminator of Wallaby and Kangaroo populations on Islands Round Australia

Summary The occurrence of kangaroos, wallabies and related species (Family Macropodidae) on islands of area 90 ha or more round Australia is non-random. Few islands adjacent to the northwestern, northern and eastern coasts have macropods present in contrast to a large number of islands near the mid-and southwestern coasts and most of the southern coastline. The latter group of islands was not visited by aborigines because they lacked watercraft, and most of the islands were apparently too small to support human populations. It is argued that Aboriginal man, through direct predation, his introduction of the Dingo, and his frequent use of fire, was chiefly responsible for the difference in representation of macropods on the two groups of islands.The median area of islands with at least one macropod species present and which are used by Aborigines is about six times larger than that of islands with at least one macropod species present and not visited or occupied by Aborigines. Several possible alternative hypotheses to account for the distribution pattern described above are discussed. For two of these hypotheses inadequate data are at hand to assess their significance.It is suggested that the median area of islands visited or occupied by Aborigines provides a guide to reserve sizes necessary for the conservation of macropods on mainland Australia. Areas of at least 5,000 ha are probably needed for the local long-term persistence of at least one species of macropod, and areas of 9,000 ha for the long-term survival in reserves of at least two macropod species.     

Phytolith and starch analysis of sediment samples from two archaeological sites on Dauar Island,Torres Strait,northeastern Australia

Current archaeological research suggests that first human occupation of the Torres Strait Islands occurred sometime between 2500 and 3000 cal b.p., and evidence indicates that the development of agricultural mound-and-ditch systems occurred there after 1200 cal b.p. Although archaeological remains testify to the existence of a marine based subsistence economy prior to 1200 cal b.p., the potential presence of earlier prehistoric horticultural signatures has yet to be adequately examined. This study investigates such evidence through a preliminary application of fossil phytolith and starch grain analysis using excavated sediments from two archaeological sites on Dauar Island, eastern Torres Strait. The results show the early presence of yam (Dioscorea sp.), and Musa species not endemic to the island. The occurrence of these edible plant types in association with carbonised phytoliths and anthropogenic shell and bone deposits may be indicative of a combined insular horticultural and marine subsistence system on Dauar Island. We suggest that with a larger and appropriate phytolith reference set for the research area, there is a potential to more clearly define human induced changes to vegetation and patterns of subsistence in the Torres Strait Islands.