John Singe, The Torres Strait: People & History

Abstract

John Singe, The Tones Strait: People & History. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1979. Cloth $19.95. 267 pp.

That the people of the Torres Strait have been largely ignored as a subject deemed appropriate for study is perhaps not altogether surprising. Beyond the seminal anthropological work carried out by Haddon's Cambridge Expedition and
Lawrie's Myths and Legends there has been a paucity of readily available material on the Torres Strait for the general or academic reader. Predictably, there has been less still of Tones Strait history or culture from the viewpoint of the Tones Strait people themselves. The Islanders—relatively small in numbers and occupying an area remote to Europeans—have hardly been overwhelmed
by profound or sympathetic study, despite the recent academically fashionable rush to print material on blacks of the Australian mainland. Presumably, academic guilt is to be expiated on a per capita basis.

Hence, it would seem that the appearance of Singe's book would be a welcome addition to our knowledge of Australia's indigenous Melanesians. Geared to a general readership, Singe makes no pretence at writing the 'heavy' academic work, as indeed he could not—the author's lack of footnoting and sourcing
of material is at best an irritation and at worst cavalier in its regard for historical practice. Instead, Singe seeks to write "the Islanders' story . .. (rather than)... a history of white settlement"; Europeans being included only insofar as their interaction with the indigenous people of the Strait. As such, however, The Torres Strait: People and History must be regarded as a failure.