Navigating through the Reefs An Engaged Ethno-Archaeology Study of Torres Strait Islander Gidhal

Abstract

Abstract For over a century Torres Strait Islander Elders’ accounts about the adventures of reforming ancestors have been recorded. The pathways of these muruygul integrate a chain of Torres Strait islands, neighboring Papua New Guinea, and northern Cape York Peninsula (Australia). According to Islanders, these narratives (each segment of which is owned by different communities) encode important information about cross-community cohesion in the past and present; a mythological geography commemorated through stories, songs, ceremonies, and art. In this chapter, Cygnet Repu describes the process by which he routinely “navigat[es] between the reefs” to “read” these multistage stories, using various cultural data sets. This method of detailed assessment of oral histories, archaeology, and language is applied herein to a gidha (important story, legend, myth) sequence relating to the wandering cultural heroes, Naga and Waiat (Wayath, called Waiet in Meriam Mìr, Waiati in Mawata-Daru Kiwai). We demonstrate how greater than 700-year-old story-line pathways taken by these cultural heroes are marked by transportation of loanwords and songs, artistic endeavors and ceremonial exchange. Excavation results are presented for community-wide celebrations and rites of passage associated with Waiat in Western and Eastern Torres Strait. Finally, we reassess past human activities within this region and the important role living saga traditions may play within broader understanding of saga histories and storytelling.