International maritime boundaries and indigenous people: The case of the Torres Strait

Marine Policy

Volumn 20, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 209-222

  Schug, Donald M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BOUNDARY CONFLICT; HUMAN RIGHTS; INDIGENOUS PEOPLE; MARITIME BOUNDARY;

AUSTRALIA; PAPUA NEW GUINEA;

EID: 0030467443     PISSN: 0308597X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/0308-597X(95)00046-9     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. J Bodley Victims of progress, Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View, California, 1990.
2. One of the principles adopted by the World Council of Indigenous Peoples reads: "Indigenous peoples have the right, in accordance with their traditions, to move and conduct traditional activities and maintain friendship relations across international boundaries." World Council of Indigenous Peoples (1984), Declaration of Principles Adopted at the Fourth General Assembly of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in Panama, September 1984. New York, United Nations, E/CN.4/ Sub.2/1985/22, Annex III.
3. M Jackson 'Indigenous Law and the Sea', in J Van Dyke, D Zaelke and G Hewison, eds, Freedom for the seas in the 21st century, Island Press, Washington DC, 1993, pp 41-48. Among the publications dealing with indigenous maritime populations that straddle international borders are J Haakonsen and M Chimere Diaw, Fishermen's migrations in West Africa, IDAF/WP/36, Contonou, FAO/DANIDA, 1991; D Sopher, Sea nomads: a study of the maritime boat people of Southeast Asia, National Museum, Singapore, 1977; and Minority Rights Group, Polar peoples: self-determination and development, Minority Rights Publications, London, 1994.
4. M Jackson 'Indigenous Law and the Sea', in J Van Dyke, D Zaelke and G Hewison, eds, Freedom for the seas in the 21st century, Island Press, Washington DC, 1993, pp 41-48. Among the publications dealing with indigenous maritime populations that straddle international borders are J Haakonsen and M Chimere Diaw, Fishermen's migrations in West Africa, IDAF/WP/36, Contonou, FAO/DANIDA, 1991; D Sopher, Sea nomads: a study of the maritime boat people of Southeast Asia, National Museum, Singapore, 1977; and Minority Rights Group, Polar peoples: self-determination and development, Minority Rights Publications, London, 1994.
5. M Jackson 'Indigenous Law and the Sea', in J Van Dyke, D Zaelke and G Hewison, eds, Freedom for the seas in the 21st century, Island Press, Washington DC, 1993, pp 41-48. Among the publications dealing with indigenous maritime populations that straddle international borders are J Haakonsen and M Chimere Diaw, Fishermen's migrations in West Africa, IDAF/WP/36, Contonou, FAO/DANIDA, 1991; D Sopher, Sea nomads: a study of the maritime boat people of Southeast Asia, National Museum, Singapore, 1977; and Minority Rights Group, Polar peoples: self-determination and development, Minority Rights Publications, London, 1994.
6. M Jackson 'Indigenous Law and the Sea', in J Van Dyke, D Zaelke and G Hewison, eds, Freedom for the seas in the 21st century, Island Press, Washington DC, 1993, pp 41-48. Among the publications dealing with indigenous maritime populations that straddle international borders are J Haakonsen and M Chimere Diaw, Fishermen's migrations in West Africa, IDAF/WP/36, Contonou, FAO/DANIDA, 1991; D Sopher, Sea nomads: a study of the maritime boat people of Southeast Asia, National Museum, Singapore, 1977; and Minority Rights Group, Polar peoples: self-determination and development, Minority Rights Publications, London, 1994.
7. H Marsh, 'Dugong is number one tucker', Oceanus, Vol 29, No 2, 1986, p 102.
8. G Kelleher, 'Sustainable Development for Traditional Inhabitants of the Torres Strait Region', in D Lawrence and T Cansfield-Smith, eds, Sustainable development for traditional inhabitants of the Torres Strait region, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, 1991, pp 15-21.
9. The Aborigines of the Cape York peninsula of Australia are culturally distinct from the 'Papuan' people of the Torres Strait region and are generally not regarded as indigenous inhabitants of the Strait.
10. D Harris, 'Foragers and farmers in the Western Torres Strait islands: a historical analysis of economic, demographic, and spatial differentiation', in P Burham and R Ellen, eds, Social and Ecological Systems, Academic Press, London, 1979, pp 75-109.
11. See R Johannes and J MacFarlane, Traditional Fishing in the Torres Strait Islands, CSIRO Division of Fisheries, Australia, 1991.
12. B Nietschmann, 'Traditional Sea Territories, Resources and Rights in Torres Strait', in J Cordell, ed, A Sea of Small Boats, Cultural Survival, Cambridge, MA, 1989, pp 60-93.
13. D Harris, 'Subsistence Strategies Across Torres Strait', in J Allen, J Golson and R Jones, eds, Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia, Academic Press, London, 1977, pp 421-464.
14. See A Haddon, Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Volume I, General Ethnography, University Press, Cambridge, 1935; and G Landtman, The Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea, Macmillan and Company, London, 1927.
15. See A Haddon, Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, Volume I, General Ethnography, University Press, Cambridge, 1935; and G Landtman, The Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea, Macmillan and Company, London, 1927.
16. D Lawrence, 'Customary exchange across Torres Strait', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, Vol 34, No 2D, 1994, pp 241-446.
17. R Cilento, Triumph in the Tropics: a Historical Sketch of Queensland, Brisbane: Smith and Paterson, 1959.
18. J Mackay, H Douglas and G Bennett, Royal Commission to Inquire into and Report upon the Working of the Pearl-shell and Bêche-de mer industries, Queensland Parliamentary Papers, Vol II, Brisbane, 1908.
19. J Bach, 'The political economy of pearl shelling', The Economic History Review, Vol 14, No 1, 1961, pp 105-114.
20. Cilento, op cit, Ref 13.
21. W Beaver, Unexplored New Guinea, Seeley, Service and Co, London, 1920.
22. J Douglas, Past and present of Thursday Island and Torres Strait, Outridge Printing, Brisbane, 1900, p 9.
23. P van der Veur, Search for New Guinea's Boundaries: from Torres Strait to the Pacific, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1966.
24. Ibid, p 32.
25. J Whittaker, N Gash, J Hookey and R Lacey, Documents and Readings in New Guinea History: Prehistory to 1889, Jacaranda Press, Port Moresby, 1975.
26. C Moore, 'Queensland Labour Trade and the Annexation of New Guinea in 1883', in S. Latukefu, ed, Papua New Guinea: A Century of Colonial Impact, National Research Institute and University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, 1989, pp 1-18.
27. Y Tom'tavala, 'Yam Houses in the Sea: Marine Claims of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea', paper presented at the Congress of the Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism, Wellington, 27-30 August 1992.
28. van der Veur, op cit, Ref 19.
29. Ibid, p 28.
30. P van der Veur, Documents and correspondence on New Guinea's boundaries, Australian National University, Canberra, 1966, p 36.
31. Ibid, p 37.
32. M White, 'Establishment of the Queensland border in the Torres Strait', in P Boyce and M White, eds, The Torres Strait Treaty, Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, 1981, pp 16-25.
33. van der Veur, op cit, Ref 19.
34. J Griffin, H Nelson and S Firth, Papua New Guinea: a Political History, Heinemann Educational, Richmond, Australia, 1979.
35. White, op cit, Ref 28.
36. van der Veur, op cit, Ref 19, pp 24-25.
37. P Hastings, New Guinea: problems and prospects, Cheshire Publishing, Melbourne, 1973, p 171.
38. Griffin, op cit, Ref 30.
39. Ibid
40. Ibid
41. Post Courier, Port Moresby, 26 February 1973, p 6.
42. Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, Sub-Committee on Territorial Boundaries, The Torres Strait Boundary, Report and Appendices. Report published by Government of Australia, Canberra.
43. Ibid
44. Parliamentary Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence (Sub-Committee A) (Sub-Committee on Territorial Boundaries), Yam Island and Saibai Island, Torres Strait, Wednesday, 4 August 1976 (Official Hansard Report). Report published by Government of Australia, Canberra, p 66.
45. Ibid
46. J Singe, The Torres Strait: People and History, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1989, p 121.
47. The full title is The Treaty between Australia and the Independent State of Papua New Guinea concerning Sovereignty and Maritime Boundaries in the area between the two Countries, including the area known as Torres Strait, and Related Matters.
48. Article 10(3). The negotiators of the Torres Strait Treaty may have preferred to use the term traditional inhabitants rather than indigenous people because the PNG government felt that the latter term referred specifically to a people who exist as a politically-disadvantaged ethnic minority in their homelands. In the wake of the violent secessionist movement that began on the island of Bougainville shortly after PNG acquired independence the Papua New Guinean government has resisted any form of regional factionalism within its borders. See K Mfodwo, and M Tsamenyi 'The Regulation of Traditional Fishing Under the Torres Strait Treaty', paper presented at Turning the Tide: Conference on Indigenous Peoples and Sea Rights, 14-16 July 1993, Northern Territory University, Darwin; and S Lawson, 'Ethnonationalist Dimensions of Internal Conflict: The Case of Bougainville Secessionism', Peace Research Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, 1992 .
49. Article 10(3). The negotiators of the Torres Strait Treaty may have preferred to use the term traditional inhabitants rather than indigenous people because the PNG government felt that the latter term referred specifically to a people who exist as a politically-disadvantaged ethnic minority in their homelands. In the wake of the violent secessionist movement that began on the island of Bougainville shortly after PNG acquired independence the Papua New Guinean government has resisted any form of regional factionalism within its borders. See K Mfodwo, and M Tsamenyi 'The Regulation of Traditional Fishing Under the Torres Strait Treaty', paper presented at Turning the Tide: Conference on Indigenous Peoples and Sea Rights, 14- 16 July 1993, Northern Territory University, Darwin; and S Lawson, 'Ethnonationalist Dimensions of Internal Conflict: The Case of Bougainville Secessionism', Peace Research Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, 1992 .
50. Article 1(1 ).
51. Article 11(1).
52. Article 1(1).
53. Mfodwo and Tsamenyi, op cit, Ref 44.
54. Ibid, p 3.
55. M Mulrennan and N Hanson, Marine Strategy for Torres Strait Policy Directions, The Australian National University North Australia Research Unit and the Torres Strait Island Coordinating Council, Darwin, 1994.
56. M Lyon and R Smith, 'The Torres Strait Treaty: aspects of implementation', in P Boyce and M White, eds, The Torres Strait Treaty, Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, 1981, pp 26-41.
57. Singe, op cit, Ref 42, p 235
58. Article 1(1).
59. D Anderson, 'Implementation of the Torres Strait Treaty: a PNG Perspective', in P Boyce and M White, eds, The Torres Strait Treaty, Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, 1981, pp 62-75.
60. M Shimada, 'Crayfish fishing in the Torres Strait', in Kenkyukai, ed, The Results of Field Research in the Torres Strait Region, Gakuin University, Osaka, 1981, pp 11-13.
61. Singe, op cit, Ref 42, p 235.
62. Torres Strait Fisheries, Joint Australia/ PNG Enforcement Meeting, Loloata Island, PNG, 13-16 February 1989, Summary Record. Unpublished report, Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Government of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby.
63. R Babbage, The Strategic Significance of Torres Strait, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, 1990.
64. B Nietschmann, Torres Strait islander sea resource management and sea rights', in K Ruddle and R Johannes, eds, The Traditional Knowledge and Management of Coastal Systems in Asia and the Pacific, Jakarta, UNESCO, 1985, pp 129-154.
65. Singe, op cit, Ref 42.
66. Ibid.
67. Parliamentary Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (PNG SubCommittee) (Reference: Australia's Relations with PNG), Brisbane, Tuesday 2 October 1990. Report published by Government of Australia, Canberra. After the Treaty was ratified Queensland government agencies intensified efforts to maintain a strict quarantine line between Australia and PNG. The imposition of more stringent quarantine regulations greatly restricted the types of foodstuffs and other exchange items that could legally enter the traditional cross-border trade network, but the regulations have proved difficult to enforce.
68. Ibid
69. Post Courier, Port Moresby, 13 January 1993, p 5.
70. The special provisions in the Torres Strait Treaty on enforcement were mainly sought by Australia, which wished to avoid the bringing of Australian island residents before courts in PNG. See H Burmester, 'The Torres Strait Treaty: ocean boundary delimitation by agreement', The American Journal of International Law, Vol 76, No 2, 1982, pp 321-349.
71. Post Courier, Port Moresby, 13 January 1993, p 5.
72. W Arthur, 'Culture and economy in border regions: the Torres Strait case', Australian Aboriginal Studies 2, 1992, pp 15-33.
73. W Arthur, 'Sustainable development: possibilities and limitations to indigenous economic development in the Torres Strait', in D Lawrence and T Cansfield-Smith, eds, Sustainable Development for Traditional Inhabitants of the Torres Strait Region, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville, 1991, pp 403-420.
74. Ibid. This is not to say that the Australian indigenous inhabitants of the Torres Strait have little interest in the Strait's marine resources. Since the mid-1980s local political leaders have sought a greater level of self-government in the islands. Establishing control over land and sea resources is the cornerstone of this quest for political and economic independence.
75. Arthur, op cit, Ref 67.
76. Summary Record of Traditional Inhabitants Meeting Held at Daru on 2-3 November, 1992. Unpublished report, Department of Foreign Affairs, Government of PNG, Port Moresby.
77. D Rentin, 'The Torres Strait Treaty: a 10 Year Review of its Operation', paper presented at Australia and the Law of the Sea: Regional Issues for the 1990s, 12 October 1991, University of Sydney, Sydney.