Jull, Peter --- "The Political Future of the Torres Strait" [1997] IndigLawB 98; (1997) 4(7) Indigenous Law Bulletin 4

[2] Main proposals are GLui, ‘A Torres Strait perspective’ in Voices from the Land: 1993 Boyer Lectures, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney, 1994, pp 62–75; Island Coordinating Council, Principles and Objectives for the Future of the Torres Strait, Thursday Island, Queensland, May 1991; Island Coordinating Council, Position on the Political Future of Torres Strait, Thursday Island, Queensland, 20 January 1993; Torres Strait Regional Authority [TSRA], Submission to the Social Justice Task Force (published collection of documents), Thursday Island, Queensland, 1994; and TSRA, Corporate Plan (including Objectives for 1996–2000), Thursday Island, Queensland, 1996.

[3] L Lieberman et al, Torres Strait Islanders: A New Deal—A Report on Greater Autonomy for Torres Strait Islanders, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, August 1997.

[4] N Sharp, Footprints Along the Cape York Sandbeaches, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1992. These Kaurareg and their special outlook and belated inclusion in Strait political structures are discussed in the 1997 Parliamentary report.

[5] S Mullins, Torres Strait: A History of Colonial Occupation and Culture Contact 1864–1897, Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton, Queensland, 1994.

[6] R Babbage et al, The strategic significance of Torres Strait, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, 1990. For insight into treaty workings, see S Vlacci, Managing the unmanageable? The Torres Strait Treaty: its effectiveness today, International Relations MA sub–thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, 1996.

[7] R Ganter, The Pearl–Shellers of Torres Strait: Resource Use, Development and Decline, 1860s–1960s, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1994. See also J Beckett, Torres Strait Islanders: custom and colonialism, Cambridge University Press, 1987; and J Singe, The Torres Strait: People and History, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1989.

[8] N Sharp, Stars of Tagai: The Torres Strait Islanders, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1993.

[9] Figures rounded from L Lieberman et al, Torres Strait Islanders: A New Deal—A Report on Greater Autonomy for Torres Strait Islanders, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, August 1997.

[10] F Griffiths (ed), Politics of the Northwest Passage, McGill–Queen’s University Press, Montreal, Canada, 1987.

[11] See ‘Canada’s Interests in the International Arctic’, Proceedings of Changing Times, Challenging Agendas: Economic and Political Issues in Canada’s North, Canadian Arctic Resources Centre, seminar held in Toronto, Canada, 30–31 October 1986, pp 109–159. See also this author’s conference paper, ‘Canadian Policy and Perspective in the Circumpolar North’, pp 140–159.

[12] For example, P Jull, ‘Internationalism, Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development’ 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, Queensland, 1991, pp 427–439.

[13] Beginning with JPLea, OGStanley and PJPhibbs, Torres Strait regional development plan, 1990–95, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Sydney, 1990; and WSArthur and V McGrath, Torres Strait development study, 1989, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1990.

[14] D Lawrence and T Cansfield–Smith (eds), Sustainable development for traditional inhabitants of the Torres Strait region, GBRMPA Workshop Series 16, AGPS, Canberra, 1991; and M Mulrennan and N Hanssen (eds), Marine Strategy for Torres Strait: Policy Directions, Australian National University North Australia Research Unity, Darwin and Island Coordinating Council, Torres Strait, 1994.

[15] See Mulrennan and Hanssen, 1994, in note 14.

[16] P Jull, A Sea Change: Overseas Indigenous–Government Relations in the Coastal Zone, Resource Assessment Commission, Canberra, September 1993.

[17] ‘General Comment Adopted by the Human Rights Committee ...’, United Nations Human Rights Committee, Document CCPR/ C/21/Rev.1/Add.5, April 26, 1994. For a discussion, see ‘International Human Rights Developments’ in M Dodson, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Third Report, 1995, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Commonwealth of Australia, Sydney, 1995, pp 58–94.

[18] See GHBrundtland et al, Our Common Future: The Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Australian Edition), with The Commission for the Future, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, pp 158–160.

[19] A Pika, J Dahl and I Larsen (eds), Anxious North: Indigenous Peoples in Soviet and Post–Soviet Russia: Selected Documents, Letters, and Articles, IWGIA Document No 82, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen, 1996. A survey of the indigenous coastal areas of Yakutia, now Sakha, is also illustrative: SIBoyakova et al, Influence of the Northern Sea Route on Social and Cultural Development of Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic Zone of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), INSROP Working Paper No 49–1996, IV.4.1, International Northern Sea Route Programme, Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Oslo, 1996.

[20] L Lieberman et al, Torres Strait Islanders: A New Deal—A Report on Greater Autonomy for Torres Strait Islanders, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, August 1997.

[21] Ibid, summary para 13.

[22] SJKehoe–Forutan, The effectiveness of Thursday Island as an urban centre in meeting the needs of its community, PhD thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 1990. A brief paper is SJKehoe–Forutan, ‘Self–management and the bureaucracy: the example of Thursday Island’ in D Lawrence and T Cansfield–Smith (eds), Sustainable development for traditional inhabitants of the Torres Strait region, GBRMPA Workshop Series 16, AGPS, Canberra, 1991, pp 421–6.

[23] L Lieberman et al, Chapter 3.

[24] Ibid, 2.4–2.12.

[25] Ibid, 2.6

[26] A slice of Nunavut life in newsagents now is M Parfit, ‘A dream called Nunavut’, with photos by JB Pinneo and double–sided map supplement ‘The Making of Canada: The North’ in National Geographic, Vol 192, No 3 (September 1997), pp 68–91. Pauline Hanson MP denounced Nunavut in her 1 October 1997 speech on native title in Parliament without revealing any actual knowledge of the subject.

[27] L Lieberman et al, Torres Strait Islanders: A New Deal—A Report on Greater Autonomy for Torres Strait Islanders, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, August 1997, 7.5.

[28] Ibid 7.8, 7.9.

[29] TSRA, Corporate Plan (including Objectives for 1996–2000), Thursday Island, Queensland, 1996.

[30] For his impression, see GLui, ‘A Torres Strait perspective’ in Voices from the Land: 1993 Boyer Lectures, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney, 1994, pp 62–75.

[31] Two Nunavut representatives at the Darwin conference gave talks most relevant to Torres Strait today. See J Amagoalik, ‘Canada’s Nunavut: an indigenous northern territory’, pp 23–25, and T Fenge, ‘The Nunavut Agreement: the environment, land and sea use and indigenous rights’, pp 31–37, in P Jull et al (eds), Surviving Colombus: Indigenous Peoples, Political Reform and Environmental Management in North Australia, Australian National University North Australia Research Unit, Darwin, 1994.

[32] LEJohansen, ‘Greenland—The Home Rule Experience’, in A Harris (ed), A good idea waiting to happen: Regional Agreements in Australia, Proceedings from the Cairns Workshop July 1994, Cape York Land Council, Cairns, 1995, pp 19–23.

[33] For some discussion and reading see P Jull, Constitution–Making in Northern Territories: Legitimacy and Governance in Australia, Central Land Council, Alice Springs, 1996.

[34] Eg S Anjum, ‘Land–use Planning in the North Slope Borough’ in National and Regional Interests in the North: Third National Workshop on People, Resources, and the Environment North of 60°, Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, Ottawa, Canada, pp 269–289; MMRFreeman, ‘The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission: Successful Co–Management under Extreme Conditions’, pp 137–153, and SJLangdon, ‘Prospects for Co–Management of Marine Animals in Alaska’, pp 154–169, in E Pinkerton (ed), Co–Operative Management of Local Fisheries: New Directions for Improved Management and Community Development, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, Canada, 1984.

[35] I Foighel, ‘Home Rule in Greenland 1979’ with English translation of the Greenland Home Rule Act, Nordic Journal of International Law, Vol 48, Nos 1–2, 4–14, 1979; P Jull, ‘Greenland: Lessons of self–government and development’, Northern Perspectives, Vol VII, No 8, Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, Ottawa, Canada, 1979.

[36] See GAMcBeath and TAMorehouse, The Dynamics of Alaskan Native Self–Government, University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland, USA, 1980; and GAMcBeath, North Slope Borough Government and Policymaking, Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska, Anchorage, USA, 1981.

[37] Summarised in ‘Alaska’ in The Indigenous World 1996–97, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen, pp 28–30. A more full account is ‘Q&A: Indian Country and tribal status in Alaska’, Tundra Times, Anchorage, 14 May 1997. For the flawed Alaskan claims experience see T Berger, Village Journey: The Report of the Alaska Native Review Commission, Hill and Wang, New York, 1985.

[38] SHendrie, ‘On the Path to a Nunavik Government’, Makivik News, No 32, Fall 1994, pp 5–9.

[39] P Tennant, Aboriginal Peoples and Politics: The Indian Land Question in British Columbia, 1849–1989, University of British Colombia Press, Vancouver, 1990.

[40] Nisga’a Treaty Negotiations Agreement–in–Principle, issued jointly by the Government of Canada, Province of British Columbia, and Nisga’a Tribal Council, Vancouver, Canada, 15 February 1996.

[41] Restructuring the Relationship, Vol2 (published in two parts), Report of the Royal commision on Aboriginal Peoples, Ottawa, Canada, 1996.

[42] Nevis Institute, The Shetland Report: A Constitutional Study, Edinburgh, 1978; J Goodlad, ‘Self–Government in the British Isles: The experience of the Shetland Islands and the aspirations of the Shetland movement’, Nordic Journal of International Law, Vol 55, Nos 1–2, pp 122–130.

[43] JWest, Faroe: the Emergence of a Nation, Hurst, London, England, and Eriksson, New York, USA, 1972.

[44] P Jull, An Aboriginal Northern Territory: Creating Canada’s Nunavut, Discussion Paper No 9, Australian National University North Australia Research Unit, Darwin, 1992; PJull, ‘Them Eskimo Mob: International Implications of Nunavut, Revised 2nd Edition’, For Seven Generations, The Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996) including Background Reports etc, CD–ROM, Public Works and Government Services (Publishing), Ottawa, Canada, 1997.

[45] GOsherenko, ‘Property Rights and Transformation in Russia: Institutional Change in the Far North’, Europe–Asia Studies, Vol 47, No 7, 1995, pp 1077–1108; A Pika, J Dahl and I Larsen (eds), Anxious North: Indigenous Peoples in Soviet and Post–Soviet Russia: Selected Documents, Letters, and Articles, IWGIA Document No 82, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Copenhagen, 1996.

[46] I Björklund, ‘Property in common, common property or private property; Norwegian fishery management in a Sami coastal area’, in North Atlantic Studies, Vol 3, No 1, 1991, pp 41–45; S Pedersen, ‘The Coastal Sami of Norway’, Symposium paper for Man and Barents Sea Ecosystem, Arctic Centre, University of Groningen, November 19–20, 1992; P Jull, ‘Northern Norway’, A Sea Change: Overseas Indigenous– Government Relations in the Coastal Zone, Resource Assessment Commission, Canberra, September 1993, pp 18–28.

[47] FKorsmo, ‘Claiming Territory: The Saami Assemblies as Ethno–Political Institutions’, Polar Geography, 20.3, 1996, pp 163–179.

[48] An author known to this author is writing a novel in which bits of Australia, including Queensland, are governed by an eccentric Japanese billionaire and her fashion retailing and project management empire as trustee, an outcome brought on by world pressure over indigenous race relations failures and Canberra needing a ploy to avoid UN expulsion; a domestic arrangement achieved under federal emergency powers, no doubt.

[49] Marine pollution or its likelihood associated with resource exploration, extraction, and transport activities has accounted for the most intense indigenous political activism in northern hinterlands of the northern hemisphere in recent decades, and in non–indigenous areas, too. It could yet end the superficially easy–going informality of Torres Strait relations with the rest of Australia, bringing a mature political settlement and a recognised place in Australia. That being said, the lack of bile in Islander–government relations can be a considerable Islander political asset, as Inuit have found all across northern Canada.