Holding a large conch to his mouth, Joey Laifoo blows into it and raises his face to the sky. A billowing sound bellows from the shell, a roar that might be ominous if it wasn’t so triumphant.
Here, on one of the islands in the Torres Strait, Joey is thanking the winds, one of the natural elements that has shaped the lives of these seafaring people for thousands of years, so important that it’s the basis of their four seasons.
“We like to thank the winds by blowing towards them, because they tell us everything that we need to survive up here because of the timing that they blow,” Joey explained.
In the garden of the Gab Titui Cultural Centre on Thursday Island, Joey is introducing me to the fascinating story of the Torres Strait Islanders who live at the very northeastern tip of Australia, in the waters between Cape York and Papua New Guinea. He and his brother sit at wooden instruments as three young boys, aged 8, 10 and 12, begin to dance, their arms snapping into shapes representing sharks and stingrays, their bare feet throwing up the dirt as they confidently step with the rhythm, each move the same as those performed for generations, each one with meaning.
It’s a demonstration put on for visitors, but with the same songs and dances that would be celebrated even if we weren’t here. The performances capture the stories of the Torres Strait, and now they’ve found a new audience – day-trippers – and Joey is excited to share them.
“If you get it out there and everybody knows about it, then your culture stays alive, and that’s very important for us,” he said.
The ancient winds may still define the seasons on the Torres Strait but for visitors, we can now fly in on the wind of change. For the first time, a day-trip will head to the Torres Strait, opening up one of Australia’s last frontiers. Leaving Cairns first thing in the morning, the charter flight takes tourists to Horn Island, where they’re shown around on a tour before catching a boat to nearby Thursday Island for more local experiences. During the six hours on the ground, the day-trippers experience Indigenous culture, the islands’ multicultural communities, and the World War Two history on the frontlines of the battle for the Pacific.
The day-trip is being run by Strait Experience, founded by traditional owner Fraser Nai and non-Indigenous Torres Strait resident John Palmer. But rather than create their own tour, they have put together a day that showcases local businesses that are already running experiences for cruise-ship passengers and intrepid tourists who manage to find their own way here.
“We tell our stories through our songs, our dance, our traditions, our culture, what we believe, and it’s something that we want to share with the world,” said Fraser.
Ron Laifoo has plenty to share. He’s a sprightly 82-year-old and has been operating taxis on Thursday Island for 50 years. When there are visitors on the island, he uses his taxi minivan to run tours, one of the experiences included in the day-trip.
“That blue building is the Uniting Church, this is the Anglican Church, that is the Roman Catholic Cathedral,” he points out, as we cruise along the main street.
For an island that’s less than three kilometres wide and with fewer than 3000 residents, there are a LOT of churches – including some “bikies’ churches”, as Ron jokingly calls the local pubs. And, like much of Queensland, rugby is also a religion here, so Ron also points out the local football field, where we briefly stop to watch some of the Saturday afternoon game.
But any day of the week, there’s plenty to see. Ron takes us to the cemetery with its tombstones of foreign scripts and names that show the multiculturalism of the islands that were used for pearling from the late 1900s; to the unassuming courthouse building where evidence was heard in Eddie Mabo’s landmark case leading to native title; and up to Green Hill Fort, a heritage-listed military installation with beautiful views across the surrounding islands.
The fort was built in 1891 as a defence against the Russians (the islands of the Torres Strait almost form stepping stones from Asia to Australia) but across the water on Horn Island, it’s the World War Two history that stands out. Australia constructed an airbase here that the allies used to fly daily bombing raids on Japanese-held territory in the north. By 1942, more than 5000 troops were stationed on Horn Island, including Australia’s only Indigenous battalion, consisting of Torres Strait Islander volunteers.
Local historian and guide Vanessa Seekee has spent much of the past 22 years uncovering and preserving the heritage of those years, from the huge anti-aircraft guns to the twisted metal of crashed planes that she leads visitors to see on the beaches and in the dense green forest.
“Horn Island is a time capsule; everything’s still out there because we haven’t been blown away or developed upon, so you still find new things,” she tells me.
Vanessa’s deep knowledge of the military history here is as fascinating as it is impressive and it would be easy to spend all day with her (or even just in the heritage museum she runs), but this new day-trip to the Torres Strait feels like just a sampler of the islands’ tales, from the land, the ocean and the wind, from today and millennia ago.
“Come and have a look and you will find out about the Torres Strait story,” said Fraser. “A lot of people just think about Aboriginal Australians, but we are Torres Strait Australians, and we are unique.”
At $1399 per person, the day-trip is not cheap and numbers are limited, so it’s a story that will be shared with only a handful of visitors for now. But this is just the start of a push to make the Torres Strait more accessible and reveal to people this remote and fascinating part of Far North Queensland.
Explore more: straitexperience.com.au