My island home: re-presenting identities for Torres Strait Islanders living outside the Torres Strait

Watkin Lui, Felecia

Abstract

Since the end of the Second World War, the Torres Strait Islander diaspora located on the mainland of Australia has grown to the extent that it now represents just over 85 percent (40,367 people) of the total Torres Strait Islander population. The continued presence of Islanders living outside their ancestral home islands has called into question this group's ability to establish an authentic cultural identity that legitimises their claims of connection to the Torres Strait. This paper explores the representation and critical aspects of identity for these Islanders. It is based on a narrative inquiry with three different generations of Islanders living outside the Torres Strait (commonly referred to as Mainlanders). Through an emphasis on place-based identity, the narratives in this paper reveal a composite counter-narrative to the frequent claims of cultural and political dissolution and displacement. This paper provides insight into the ways that Islanders negotiate and contest the contemporary Mainlander experience through the creation of systems of re-presentation, cultural expression and relatedness between individuals and the collective.

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Journal of Australian Studies

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1835-6419

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Taylor & Francis

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DOI

10.1080/14443058.2012.674544