In an ethnically stratified work force, Japanese, South Sea Islander, Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal divers brought up from the sea floor the shell that produced mother-of-pearl, and sometimes pearls. Many men died at this dangerous work. This was an industry that could have given the indigenous peoples of Torres Strait an occupation that preserved their identity and independence. Yet in spite of a co-operative lugger scheme that operated fairly successfully in the early twentieth century, a real independence was not achieved. And a resource that could have been conserved by small-scale indigenous harvesting was depleted time and again by the colonial practices of resource-raiding and mass extraction. Regina Ganter charts the progress of pearl-shelling from its heyday through its several crises resulting from overfishing to its present cautious management. The book is greatly enhanced by the oral testimony of divers and boat-owners.

Pearls, People, and Power is the first book to examine the trade, distribution, production, and consumption of pearls and mother-of-pearl in the global Indian Ocean over more than five centuries. While scholars have long recognized the importance of pearling to the social, cultural, and economic practices of both coastal and inland areas, the overwhelming majority have confined themselves to highly localized or at best regional studies of the pearl trade. By contrast, this book stresses how pearling and the exchange in pearl shell were interconnected processes that brought the ports, islands, and coasts into close relation with one another, creating dense networks of connectivity that were not necessarily circumscribed by local, regional, or indeed national frames. Essays from a variety of disciplines address the role of slaves and indentured workers in maritime labor arrangements, systems of bondage and transoceanic migration, the impact of European imperialism on regional and local communities, commodity flows and networks of exchange, and patterns of marine resource exploitation between the Industrial Revolution and Great Depression. By encompassing the geographical, cultural, and thematic diversity of Indian Ocean pearling, Pearls, People, and Power deepens our appreciation of the underlying historical dynamics of the many worlds of the Indian Ocean. Contributors: Robert Carter, William G. Clarence-Smith, Joseph Christensen, Matthew S. Hopper, Pedro Machado, Julia T. Martínez, Michael McCarthy, Jonathan Miran, Steve Mullins, Karl Neuenfeldt, Samuel M. Ostroff, and James Francis Warren.

No mention of tribal names.

Born on a Hunter estuary, NSW, island in 1857, James Clark was orphaned at age two, arrived penniless in Brisbane ten years later, and never looked back. Starting out in Torres Strait at 23, he became the dominant figure in Australia’s pearlshelling industry, The Pearl King. Then, with a young partner, he built one of the nation’s biggest pastoral companies. He ran an oyster business in Moreton Bay that supplied gourmet markets as far away as Perth, and was prominent in Queensland’s yachting and horseracing fraternities. Entrepreneurial, generous, with a reputation for straight-shooting, he lived life to the full.

This book is the first on the history of the marine fisheries of Southeast Asia. It takes as its central theme the movement of fisheries into new fishing grounds, particularly the diverse ecosystems that make up the seas of Southeast Asia. This process accelerated between the 1950s and 1970s in what the author calls "e;the great fish race"e;. Catches soared as the population of the region grew, demand from Japan and North America for shrimps and tuna increased, and fishers adopted more efficient ways of locating, catching, and preserving fish. But the great fish race soon brought about the severe depletion of one fish population after another, while pollution and the destruction of mangroves and coral reefs degraded fish habitats. Today the relentless movement into new fishing grounds has come to an end, for there are no new fishing grounds to exploit. The frontier of fisheries has closed. The challenge now is to exploit the seas in ways that preserve the diversity of marine life while providing the people of the region with a source of food long into the future.

Torres Strait Islander women's experiences during the Pacific War, 1942 to 1945; pre-war life in theTorres Strait; living under the Torres Strait Islander Act 1939, and withdrawal of the Department's officers in March 1942; evacuation of women and children to mainland Australia, including Cherbourg; Thursday island wives of Japanese divers; evacuation of Hammond Island Mission women and children to Cooyar with Father Flynn; residents of the outer islands were not evacuated; the bombing of Nurapai; recruiting men for war service, account of recruiting men at gunpoint at Masig; discussion on recruitment and volunteering; rates of pay for men; discussion of civil defence; AIF signallers assisted the women left on the islands; Battle of the Coral Sea; living conditions during the war; receipt of child endowment in 1941 and withholding of moneys by the Department; council elections of 1944; teachers' training college on Mabuiag under Phillip Frith; education of children during the war; health services; proclamation of peace on 15 August 1945 and return of the men.