People of Tiwi island Australia
Tiwi Island Northern Territory of the Country Australia
The Tiwi Islands are part of Australia's Northern Territory, north of Darwin where the Arafura Sea joins the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island and Bathurst Island, with a combined area of 8,320 square kilometres (3,212 sq mi).
Inhabited before European settlement by the Tiwi indigenous Australians, there are approximately 2500 people on the islands.
The Tiwi Land Council is one of four in the Northern Territory. It is a representative body with statutory authority under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and has responsibilities under the Native Title Act 1993 and the Pastoral Land Act 1992.
Geography and population
Tiwi Islands Car Ferry, 2011
The Tiwi Islands lie 80km to the north of Australia's Northern Territory in the Arafura Sea, and are part of the Northern Territory[1]. Bathurst Island is the fifth-largest island of Australia and accessible by sea or air.[2] Melville Island is Australia's second largest island (after Tasmania).[3]
The islands are separated by Apsley Strait, which connects Saint Asaph Bay in the north and Shoal Bay in the south, and is between 550 metres and 5 km wide, 62 km long. At the mouth of Shoal Bay is Buchanan Island, with an area of about 3 km². A car ferry at the narrowest point provides a quick connection between the two islands.
Traditional burial poles, Tiwi Islands, 2005.
They are inhabited by the Tiwi people, as they have been since before European settlement in Australia. The Tiwi are an Indigenous Australian people, culturally and linguistically distinct from those of Arnhem Land on the mainland just across the water. They number around 2500.[4] In 2006 the total population of the islands was 2129, of whom 91.3% were Aboriginal.[5] Most residents speak Tiwi as their first language and English as a second language.[6] Most of the population live in Wurrumiyanga (known as Nguiu until 2010) on Bathurst Island, and Pirlangimpi (also known as Garden Point) and Milikapiti (also known as Snake Bay) on Melville Island. Wurrumiyanga has a population of nearly 1500, the other two centres around 450 each.[7]
There are other smaller settlements, including Wurankuwu (Ranku) Community on western Bathurst Island
History
Indigenous Australians have occupied the Tiwi Islands for centuries, with creation stories suggesting they were present at least 7000 years before present.[9]
Tiwi islanders are believed to have had contact with Macassan traders,[10] and the first historical record of contact between Indigenous islanders and western explorers was with the Dutch 'under the command of Commander Maarten van Delft who took three ships into Shark Bay on Melville Island and landed on 30 April 1705'.[9] There were other visits by explorers and navigators in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including by Dutchman Pieter Pieterszoon, Frenchman Nicholas Baudin and Briton Philip Parker King.[11]
Nguiu Catholic church in 2005
The first European settlement on the Islands was at Fort Dundas, near present-day Pirlangimpi on Melville Island. Established in September 1824, this was the first British settlement in northern Australia, but owing in part to the hostility of the Indigenous population it lasted only five years, being abandoned in 1829.[11] As "the first attempted European and military settlement anywhere in northern Australia", the site is on Australia's Register of the National Estate.[12]
A Catholic mission was established by Francis Xavier Gsell in 1911,[9][10] and the islands were proclaimed an Aboriginal Reserve in 1912. A timber church built in the 1930s is a prominent landmark in Wurrumiyanga.[10] The catholic mission thrived until 1972 and provided invaluable education to the Tiwi people. This including the provision of agricultural skills and the Tiwi people successfully sold crops such as bananas to the main land. With self-determination declared in 1972, the mission activities effectively ceased. However, a continuing catholic presence of Brothers, Sisters and Priests was requested by the Tiwi people of Nguiu to assist with education and health services.
Control of the islands was transferred to the Indigenous traditional owners through the Tiwi Aboriginal Land Trust, and the Tiwi Land Council that was founded in 1978.[9] The Tiwi Islands Local Government Area was established in 2001, when the previous community government councils in the three main communities of Wurrumiyanga (Bathurst Island), Pirlangimpi and Milikapiti (Melville Island) were amalgamated with the Wurankuwu Aboriginal Corporation to form a single local government.[13] The Tiwi Islands Local Government was replaced in 2008 by the Tiwi Islands Shire Council as part of a Northern Territory-wide restructuring of local government.
Culture
The creation of Indigenous Australian art is an important part of Tiwi Island culture and its economy. There are three Indigenous art centres on the islands: Tiwi Design, Munupi Arts & Crafts, and Jilamara Arts and Craft,[19] and these collaborate through a cooperative venture, Tiwi Art.[20] Apart from Tiwi Art network there are two independent operations: fabric design, printing and clothing business Bima Wear,[21] operated by Indigenous women since 1969, and Ngaruwanajirri, also known as 'The Keeping Place'.
Tiwi artists who have held international exhibitions or whose works are held in major Australian collections include Donna Burak,[22] Jean Baptiste Apuatimi,[23] and Fiona Puruntatameri.[24]
A lot of wood carvings of birds are made by Tiwi people. Some of these are displayed in the Mission Heritage Gallery on Bathurst Island. The carvings represent various birds from Tiwi mythology, which have various meanings. Certain birds tell the Tiwi people about approaching monsoonal rains whilst others warn of impending cyclones. Others, depending on the totem of the people, alert the Tiwi people that someone has died in a particular clan. There are others that represent ancestral beings who were, according to mythology, changed into birds. Carved birds are sometimes at the top of pukumani poles, which are placed at sacred burial sites.
The Tiwi People also create many of their designs on fabric. The main method uses wax to resist dying similarly to Indonesian batik prints. Various fabrics are used ranging from sturdy, woven cotton to delicate silks, from which they create silk scarves.
The creation of their artwork is usually a social activity and consists of groups of people sitting together and talking whist they work in a relaxed fashion. Often these grouping are segregated by gender
Faces of Tiwi islanders
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