Its Trigger speaking. Trigger, more formally Jimmy Daddie Tapau, is a 60-year-old Torres Strait Islander. He has been fishing off Murray Island for most of his life. He knows every reef and every channel. Where and when to find crayfish, giant clams and fish in these abundant waters.
Murray Islanders got formal legal recognition of their ownership of the land in the High Court judgment in the Mabo case, but without security over the sea, from whence comes their traditional livelihood, the land rights will not be complete.
When the Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson, arrives on the island tomorrow, he will be told this by the chairman of the Murray Island Community Council, Ron Day.
The Mabo case has sent waves of expectation over Aboriginal and Islander communities around Australia. It has caused obvious concern among mining and pastoral interests and tourist operators who want to continue to have access to national parks.
On Murray Island, or Mer as the indigenous people prefer to call it, however, the issue has moved from the land to the sea.
The Mabo case declared and secured what they saw was their land anyway. The sea is another vital question. The islanders are concerned that large commercial fleets will take their sea produce.
The other linked issue is economic development.
“”The professionalism and self-esteem of islanders has been destroyed by the dole cheque,” Day said. “”People here are born fishermen. We have to re-create that professionalism and responsibility. Those responsible for destroying it had a responsibility to help re-create it.”
About $1.3 million comes into the island each year in social security benefits and perhaps a further $800,000 in other federal and state grants for capital works.
There are 400 islanders on the nine square kilometre island. Of them about 150 are adults not of pensionable age. How many have full-time work?
Ron Day starts counting on his fingers and naming names.
“”There’s John Mabo in the council office. Pam down at Flight-West, but they’re closing in August. There’s . . . ” He trails off, concluding that fewer than 30 have full- or part- time work. That’s an unemployment rate of more than 80 per cent.
Other social security comes in the form of family allowances.
Former ANU scholar Jeremy Beckett who has researched extensively on Torres Strait calls it “”welfare colonialism”.
“”Call it what you like,” Day says, “”I am talking to you in very simple terms. Before Europeans came people lived here and were happy. Then the government came in and made people feel dependent. The dole destroys people’s sense of responsibility.
“”I would like to see from the government a commitment acknowledging they caused the problem and have to help.”
This is the message that Dr Hewson will be getting.
Dr Hewson can expect a cool reaction from some islanders. Many have expressed very strong private hostility to the visit to me. Oddly enough, however, he can expect to find many shared values with Day and other island leaders. Words like self-respect, responsibility and professionalism have a high place in both leaders’ vocabulary.
The corrosive effect of the dole can be seen throughout the island. Many islanders have gone south for work. Indeed, perhaps as many has 2000 people of Murray Island descent live on the mainland, mainly in Townsville and Cairns. They know about award wages, and on their return to the island do not see the point in working at their own business or in sustained subsistence work for anything less.
Gardens that were once cultivated with yams and bananas have reverted to the wild. Fishing is no longer a full-time living, but an optional extra on top of the dole. There is no market for local produce.
The dole provides enough for supermarket food that comes in on the barge. The dole and the barge are the new cargo cult.
Ron Day, to his credit, wants to change that, though he is obviously meeting resistance.
He dearly wants a work-for-the-dole scheme but has meet bureaucratic and some islander resistance to getting the Community Employment Development Fund to apply on the island. Basically, under that scheme, councils get money for capital items and can then employ people at the dole rate. If they don’t work, they lose the dole.
Some other islands have used it very successfully. There is any amount of work to be done on the island. Far too little repair, maintenance or cleaning work appears to be done on anything: buildings, roads or machinery.
It is not getting done partly because of lack of training. There is a lot of medium and hi-tech material on the island such as solar hot water and low-volt electricity panels, diesel electricity generators and telecommunications equipment.
It is also not getting done because of remoteness. Parts and trained people have to come at great expense from Cairns and then there is no guarantee that the parts are the right ones, or that they got on the plane or the barge on time. But the main reason seems to be, as Day puts it: “”Now everyone is sitting waiting for the dole cheque.”
“”Funding” is another corrosive. If projects fail it is “”because they stopped the funding”. However, most of the “”funding” (from state and federal governments) is in the form of wages, not capital items. Thus the local broadcasting service (with lots of still serviceable equipment) closed “”because they stopped the funding” for the wages of those who went on air or collected the community news. There was no thought of a voluntary community radio and television service as in many parts of Australia.
However, family networks provide extensive support for people in strife.
Day, who has been chair of the council for six years, is committed to getting back a sense of responsibility among islanders. It is not a straighforward task. Some are with him others against.
His council is building a $200,000 freezer to hold 20 tonnes of seafood. It could make the island very wealthy. Some islanders scoff at it, saying it will be just another white elephant. But properly run with crayfish paying $30 a kilo and other fish good returns, it could give back the self-respect.
“”This council is trying to make an economy in a small way on this island,” Day said. “”The only way is to use resources commercially is the sea.”
Hence the concern over sea rights.
When Dr Hewson flies in tomorrow (Wed july6), he will see from the air what looks like an island paradise: three green dots _ Mer, Dauar and Waier _ in jewel blue sea. Villages and a church amid coconut palms on the shore. The sea is so clear you can see 15 to 20 metres down to the coral.
You can stroll from house to beach and be assured of getting fish for breakfast and the climate is a joy coming from Canberra’s brisk winter. Dr Hewson will meet courteous and friendly people.
However, the islanders hope that the impressions he takes away from his two-hour visit will not be dominated by just the aerial view of beautiful islands in the sea. Remote island paradises can be illusory when you come to earth.