Canoes of Mabuyag and Torres Strait

Outrigger canoes used by Torres Strait Islanders are the largest and most complex watercraft ethnographically documented for nineteenth century Indigenous Australians. Measuring up to 21 m in length, these vessels were central to the functioning of Torres Strait Islander society in terms of marine subsistence and the movement of people and goods between islands and the adjacent mainlands of New Guinea and Australia. Indirect archaeological evidence suggests that use of large outrigger canoes dates back at least 2,500 years ago in Torres Strait. This paper presents the first synthesis of Torres Strait canoes in nearly a century, building on the foundational research of Alfred Cort Haddon. Using previously unpublished archival records, photographs, paintings and material culture, particularly the Brierly collection of detailed watercolour paintings of canoes made during the HMS Rattlesnake expedition of 1848-49, this new synthesis expands technological understandings of canoe structure and function with developed insights into the social dimensions of canoe use. Colour images of canoes provide the first detailed published presentation of the elaborate decorative and aesthetic qualities of Torres Strait canoes. What emerges is a detailed picture of arguably the largest and most elaborate item of traditional material culture used by Indigenous Australians.