Torres Strait Islanders

Map of Torres Strait Islands

Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, part of Queensland, in Australia. They are culturally related to the coastal peoples of Papua New Guinea but are regarded as being different from other Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia. There are also two Torres Strait Islander communities on the nearby coast of the mainland.

Population

There are 6,000 Torres Strait Islanders who live in the area of the Torres Strait and 42,000 others who live outside that area, mostly in northern Queensland, particularly in Townsville and Cairns.

Culture

The Torres Strait Islanders have a distinct culture, which has slight variations on the different islands on which they live. They are a sea-faring people and engaged in trade with peoples of Papua New Guinea. The culture is complex, with some Australian elements, some Papuan elements, and some Austronesian elements, just like the languages.

The islanders seem to have been the dominant culture for many centuries, and neighbouring Aboriginal and Papuan cultures show some Island influence such is their religious ceremonies. Archaeological, linguistic and oral history evidence suggests that the core of Island culture is Austronesian. Unlike the Aboriginal peoples in the rest of Australia, the islanders were traditionally agriculturalists but supplemented their food supplies by hunting and gathering.

Related pages

• Indigenous Australians
• Papua New Guinea

Other websites

• Torres Strait Regional Authority Archived 2007-09-18 at the Wayback Machine
• Church of Torres Strait Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine