To inhabitants of islands of the Torres Strait, 1993 – often referred to as ‘The International Year of Indigenous Peoples’ – came 157 years after the first significant contact with Europeans was made, and 200 years after the first recorded sightings of ‘Indians’. Torres first visited in 1606. Carstensz[oon] sailed here in 1623, and Abel Tasman in 1644. Cook sailed by in 1770, Bligh in 1789, Edwards in 1791, and then Bampton and Alt in 1793. Flinders voyaged here in 1802, King in 1819, Wilson in 1822, and then came many others.

The ‘International Year’ was the occasion for many writers around the globe to record and celebrate events of significance. Some were content with reciting noble events, unpleasant events, or even events that condemned the invasion of their (or somebody else’s) lands. Others reported more recent stories of continued disenfranchisement, powerlessness, or perhaps reconciliation with alien governments and their institutions. They were mostly written in terms of colonisers versus colonised, dominant versus minority, centre versus margins, and even society versus individual.

I too am interested in historical data but I’m not content with the simple recitation of noble events; I take issue with all perspectives (theoretical ones too) that have grown ritual, as have those characterisations of Islander culture which are evident in most liberal writings – even in more emancipatory ones – managing as they do, to misrepresent our culture in the interests of a contemporary colonial agenda. Indeed, a consideration of the broad theme of ‘culture’ seems to me to be much more pertinent to any understanding of ‘what happened’ than any chronology of events could be.