Tiwi Islands

Tiwi Islands

Native name: Ratuati Irara ("two islands")
Landsat 7 imagery of the Tiwi Islands.
Tiwi Islands
Geography
Location	Arafura Sea
Coordinates	11°36′S 130°49′E / 11.600°S 130.817°E / -11.600; 130.817Coordinates: 11°36′S 130°49′E / 11.600°S 130.817°E / -11.600; 130.817
Total islands	11
Major islands	Melville Island Bathurst Island
Area	8,320 km2 (3,210 sq mi)
Coastline	1,016 km (631.3 mi)
Administration
Australia
State or territory	Northern Territory
LGA	Tiwi Islands Shire
Demographics
Population	2,579 (August 2011)
Pop. density	0.31 /km2 (0.8 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Tiwi people
Additional information
Official website	http://www.tiwiislands.nt.gov.au/

The Tiwi Islands are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, 80 km to the north of Darwin where the Arafura Sea joins the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Bathurst Island, and nine smaller uninhabited islands, 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 3,000 people on the islands.

The Tiwi Land Council is one of four land councils 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 80 km to the north of the Australian mainland in the Arafura Sea, and are part of the Northern Territory.^[1] The island group consists of two large inhabited islands (Melville and Bathurst), and nine smaller uninhabited islands (Buchanan, Harris, Seagull, Karslake, Irritutu, Clift, Turiturina, Matingalia and Nodlaw).^[2] Bathurst Island is the fifth-largest island of Australia and accessible by sea or air.^[3] Melville Island is Australia's second largest island (after Tasmania).^[4]

The main 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 2,500.^[5] In 2011, the total population of the islands was 2,579, of whom 87.9% were Aboriginal.^[6] Most residents speak Tiwi as their first language and English as a second language.^[7] 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.^[8]

There are other smaller settlements, including Wurankuwu (Ranku) Community on western Bathurst Island.^[9]

History

Indigenous Australians have occupied the Tiwi Islands for centuries, with creation stories suggesting they were present at least 7,000 years before present.^[10]

Tiwi islanders are believed to have had contact with Macassan traders,^[11] 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, the Nieuw Holland, the Waijer, and the Vosschenbosch, into Shark Bay on Melville Island and landed on 30 April 1705".^[10] 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.^[12]

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.^[12] As "the first attempted European and military settlement anywhere in northern Australia", the site is on Australia's Register of the National Estate.^[13]

A Catholic mission was established by Francis Xavier Gsell in 1911,^[11][14] and the islands were proclaimed an Aboriginal Reserve in 1912. A timber church built in the 1930s is a prominent landmark in Wurrumiyanga.^[11] The Catholic mission had positive impacts, through access to education and welfare services, but also negative effects through the suppression of Aboriginal language and culture.^[15]

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.^[10][16] 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.^[17] 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.^[18]

Politics and administration

The Tiwi Islands are part of the federal electorate of Lingiari,^[19] for which the current member is Warren Snowdon.^[20] The islands are within the Northern Territory electorate of Arafura. The current member for Arafura is Lawrence Costa, from the Labor Party.^[21]

The administration of the islands is divided between the local Tiwi Islands Shire Council, and the Indigenous landholder representative organisation, the Tiwi Land Council. Representatives on the Shire Council are elected from four wards, and include 11 councillors.^[5]

1. Milikapiti Ward (northeast Melville Island, largest)
2. Nguiu Ward (south Bathurst Island, Buchanan Island)
3. Pirlangimpi Ward (west and southwest Melville Island)
4. Wurankuwu Ward (north Bathurst Island)

In 2011–12, the operating budget of the Tiwi Islands Shire Council was A$26.4 million.^[22] As of 2013, the elected Mayor of Tiwi Islands Shire Council is Lynette Jane De Santis.^[23]

Culture

Tiwi Island decorated carvings, 2005.

Indigenous art

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,^[24] and these collaborate through a cooperative venture, Tiwi Art.^[25] Apart from Tiwi Art network there are two independent operations: fabric design, printing and clothing business Bima Wear,^[26] 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 Kitty Kantilla, Donna Burak,^[27] Jean Baptiste Apuatimi,^[28] and Fiona Puruntatameri.^[29]

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.

Tiwi Island bird carvings, 2011

The Tiwi people also create many of their designs on fabric. The main method uses wax to resist dyeing similarly to Indonesian batik prints. Various fabrics are used ranging from sturdy, woven cotton to delicate silks, from which they create silk scarves.

Ceiling of a Tiwi Island art gallery and studio, 2011

The creation of their artwork is usually a social activity and consists of groups of people sitting together and talking whilst they work in a relaxed fashion. Often these grouping are segregated by gender.

Australian rules football

Australian rules football is the most popular sport on the Tiwi Islands, and was introduced in 1941 by missionaries John Pye and Andy Howley.^[30] There has been a Tiwi Islands Football League competition since 1969.^[31]

A Tiwi Islands Aussie Rules game.

The Tiwi Islands Football League Grand Final is held in March each year and attracts up to 3,000 spectators. The Tiwi Australian Football League has 900 participants out of a community of about 2600, the highest football participation rate in Australia (35%).^[32]

Tiwi footballers are renowned for exquisite "one touch" skills. Many of the players have a preference for playing barefoot. Many of the male players also play for the St Mary’s Football Club in Darwin, which was formed specifically to allow Tiwi soldiers in the 1950s to play in the Northern Territory Football League.

The Tiwi Bombers Football Club fielded a team in the Northern Territory Football League from the 2006/07 season.

Notable footballers from the Tiwi Islands to have played in the national VFL / AFL competition include Ronnie Burns,^[33] Maurice Rioli,^[34] Cyril Rioli, Daniel Rioli,^[34] Dean Rioli, Michael Long,^[33] Malcolm Lynch, Austin Wonaeamirri,^[35] David Kantilla^[36] and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti.

Maurice Rioli (1982) and Michael Long (1993) are both uncles of Cyril Rioli (2015), and all three have won the Norm Smith Medal for being adjudged the best player of an AFL Grand Final.

The Tiwi Islands Football Club was the subject of a series on ABC's Message Stick in 2009, called "In A League of Their Own".^[37]

Cricket

As reported in The Weekend Australian in 2010, Australian cricketers led by Mathew Hayden raised $200,000 for cricket development in the Tiwi Islands. With former internationals Allan Border, Michael Kasprowicz and Andy Bichel, the match between Hayden XI and Border XI had a turnout of 1,000 people, nearly half the islands' population.^[38]

Transport

A commercial flight operator, Fly Tiwi, connects both islands to each other and to Darwin. Formed as an association between Hardy Aviation and the Tiwi Land Council, Fly Tiwi has daily flights to all three communities on the islands.^[39]

SeaLink NT operates ferry services connecting Wurrumiyanga and Darwin, making the 2.5 hour trip each way three days a week.^[40]

In 2008, local government maintained 925 km of roads on the islands.^[22]

Environment, conservation and land use

The islands' climatic and geographical extremity means that they have distinctive vegetation and special conservation values:

because of their isolation and because they have extremely high rainfall, the Tiwi Islands support many species not recorded elsewhere in the Northern Territory (or in the world), and some range-restricted species. The Tiwi Islands contain the Territory’s best-developed (tallest and with greatest basal area) eucalypt forests and an unusually high density and extent of rainforests.^[3]

Climate

The Tiwi Islands have a tropical monsoonal climate, with 2000 mm of rainfall on northern Bathurst Island and 1200 to 1400 mm on eastern Melville Island.^[41] The wet season from November to April brings the islands the highest rainfall in the Northern Territory.^[42] The Tiwi people describe three distinct seasons: the dry (season of smoke), the buildup (high humidity and cicadas songs) and the wet (storms) The seasons frame the lifestyle of the Tiwi people, dictating the food sources available and their ceremonial activities.^[43]

Flora and fauna

The islands have been isolated from the Australian mainland since the last ice age. They are covered mainly with eucalypt forest on a gently sloping lateritic plateau. The extensive open forest, open woodlands and riparian vegetation are dominated by Darwin Stringybarks, Woollybutts, and Cajuputs. There are small patches of rainforest occurring in association with perennial freshwater springs, and mangroves occupying the numerous inlets.^[42]

There is a range of threatened and endemic species on the Tiwi Islands. Thirty-eight threatened species have been recorded, and a number of plants and invertebrates are found nowhere else, including eight plant species and some land snails and dragonflies.^[46] Threatened mammals include Brush-tailed rabbit rats, northern brush-tailed phascogales, false water rats and Carpentarian dunnarts.^[42] The islands host the world's largest breeding colony of crested terns and a large population of the vulnerable olive ridley turtle;^[46] a sea turtle conservation program commenced on the islands in 2007.^[46] The seas and estuaries around the islands are home to several species of shark and saltwater crocodiles.

Important Bird Area

The islands have been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because they support relatively high densities of red goshawks, partridge pigeons and bush stone-curlews, as well as up to 12,000 (over 1% of the world population) great knots. Other birds for which the Tiwi Island populations are globally significant include chestnut rails, beach stone-curlews northern rosellas, varied lorikeets, rainbow pittas, silver-crowned friarbirds, white-gaped, yellow-tinted and bar-breasted honeyeaters, canary white-eyes and masked finches.^[47] The birds have a high level of endemism at the subspecific level; the Tiwi masked owl (Tyto novaehollandiae melvillensis) is considered endangered and the Tiwi hooded robin (Melanodryas cucullata melvillensis) is at least endangered and may be extinct.^[42]

Forestry and mining

Forest products are an important part of the Tiwi Islands economy, but the sector has had a chequered history. Forestry dates back to 1898, with plantations being trialled from the 1950s and 1960s.^[48][49] A native softwood enterprise was established in the mid-1980s, as a partnership between the private sector and the Land Council; however by the mid-1990s, the Land Council was winding the venture down, noting that its investor partner had "various tax driven ambitions which are growingly incompatible with our own employment and sustainable production goals".^[50] Despite the setback, it was still considered that forestry was likely to be crucial to the Tiwi economy,^[51] and in 2001 the Land Council and Australian Plantations Group commenced a major expansion of Acacia mangium plantations to supply woodchips.^[52] The operations of Australian Plantations Group (later named Sylvatech) were purchased by Great Southern Group in 2005.^[53] In 2006, the operations were reported to be "the largest native-forest clearing project in northern Australia".^[54] In September 2007 the Northern Territory Government investigated claims that the company had breached environmental laws,^[55] with financial penalties being imposed by the Federal environment department in 2008.^[54] Much of the cleared land is used for cattle or monoculture plantations, which the timber company has maintained are an important source of local jobs.^[56] Great Southern Plantations collapsed in early 2009, and the Tiwi Land Council has been examining options for future management of the plantations.^[57]

The islands have mineral sands on both Melville Island's north coast and the western coast of Bathurst Island.^[51] In 2005, Matilda Minerals developed a proposal for mining on the islands, which was assessed and approved in 2006.^[58] In 2007 sand mining produced the first shipments of zircon and rutile for export to China.^[59] A 7,800 tonne shipment was made in June 2007,^[60] with a further 5,000 tonnes shipped later that year.^[59] Matilda Minerals planned to conduct mining for four years,^[59] however in August 2008 its Tiwi operations were halted, and in October it was placed in administration.^[61][62]

See also

• Hector (storm)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tiwi Islands.

• Tiwi Land Council
• Tiwi Islands Shire Council
• Tiwi Creation Stories
• Tiwi Islands travel guide from Wikivoyage