Inclusions, exclusions and transitions: Torres Strait Islander constructed landscapes over the past 4000 years, northeast Australia

Abstract

Many hunter-gatherer-cultivators, including Indigenous Australians, intentionally manipulated their environments via three broad processes — inclusions (plant and animal translocations), exclusions (quarantining of certain plants and animals) and transitions ( in situ change of biotas, landforms and hydrologies, often through fire). These environmental changes resulted in deliberately and strategically `constructed landscapes' that not only supported societies but also established new contexts and conditions for cultural change. The structured and structuring nature of constructed landscapes is explored across the islands of Torres Strait of northeast Australia during the mid to late Holocene. Torres Strait Islanders deliberately imported and established the dog (dingo) while actively ensuring that cuscuses, cassowaries and pigs imported from New Guinea never produced viable populations on islands. Floral resources of islands were augmented by introducing a range of food crop staples and raw material plants through long-established contacts with peoples from New Guinea and more recent contacts with outsiders during the colonial era. Fire was a key tool of in situ vegetation change resulting in forest clearance and lowland sedimentation. These terrestrial activities supported, maintained and in some cases entrenched specialized marine lifeways in the region. In many respects, Torres Strait Islanders engineered the deterministic qualities of their own environment.