Grasping adubad: Badulgal management, tenure, knowledge and harvest within the marine environment of the Torres Strait

The dissertation research presented here is concerned with three areas of Torres Strait Islander interaction with the local marine environment, with a particular focus on the Islander community on Badu Island in the Torres Strait region of Australia. The Badulgal, as the traditional residents of Badu are known, have inhabited the Torres Strait region for thousands of years. Torres Strait Islanders have therefore developed management institutions, as well as tenure and knowledge systems that are frequently brought to bear on their local marine environment. After introducing the research location in an introductory chapter, the second chapter examines the Australian government-mandated fisheries management structure for the Torres Strait Islands and places current management in the context of historical and cultural fishery management. The nascent autonomy movement in the islands, originated and partially embraced by the indigenous Islander residents of the Strait, is a response to management failures and frustrations, as defined in local terms. Possibilities for increased participation offered by the legal changes of Mabo v. Queensland (1992) and the subsequent Native Title Act (1993) have not always proved satisfactory to Islanders. Greater autonomy, now a local possibility, provides the hope for an indigenous management structure that will suit diverse local stakeholder interests. In the third chapter, the dissertation research describes and analyzes the cultural form of marine management demonstrated in the Badulgal marine tenure system. Marine tenure around Badu and in the Torres Strait is dependent upon the users, resources and individuals, groups and communities claiming harvest rights over marine and reef areas. A fourth chapter examines the substantial marine knowledge exhibited by the Badulgal and Torres Strait Islanders generally. This 'knowledge' chapter asserts that the use of the marine environment has been instrumental in developing and maintaining the significant traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) evident on Badu, and that such use continued in part due to the local manifestations of commercially oriented extractions. Each chapter's included research area, concerned with Torres Strait management, tenure and knowledge in the marine environment, is linked by the sustained harvest and harvest practices apparent on Badu Island and in the Torres Strait.