A visit to Tudu Island, Torres Strait

Our group left at sunset and followed the emerging stars to arrive at nightfall on Tudu Island in the central Torres Strait. We set our tents at the edge of the beach among empty end-of-season crayfish pots. Mark and two of his daughters, Maddy and Mara, delivered us with skilful boat driving across a vast sea to this special place. They have nourished us with food from the reef all week and stories of growing up on this remote island.

We walked the interior with an archaeologist and anthropologist who pointed out dugong bone mounds, clam shell tools and a 1,100 year old campfire. To the trained eye, there are clues all around revealing how people have lived here, developing and changing and toughing it out for a very long time. The fortunes of the families here are so tightly coupled to the restlessly changing seascapes they call home. We came because we were asked to do an aerial survey to make a detailed 3d model of the island for the community to track how the landscape is evolving.

Islands have a reputation for being liminal spaces - between water and land, the present and the past, but on this one in particular, between humans and their environment. The interconnection between the people and the sea here is unlike any other way of being I’ve seen before. It’s innovative and exciting to see such a broad array of possibilities for living in harmony with the land.

Thanks to the Tudugal community for having us, I’ll cherish the memories of your island.