Kevin Murphy

PhD Candidate in Anthropology

Email: kevin.murphy@anu.edu.au

Thesis title: Traditions of modernity: Trans-Fly Papuans and the Torres Strait Treaty “traditional inhabitant” provisions

The border between Australia and Papua New Guinea is defined by a treaty between the two countries which establishes a complex set of arrangements to allow people classified as “traditional inhabitants” to cross the border to engage in “traditional activities” without going through normal customs and immigration procedures.

My research involves a critical examination of the concept of tradition in light of data concerning the fields of social relations affected by the “traditional inhabitants” provisions in the Torres Strait Treaty, focussed primarily on the Papua New Guinea side of the border. There is conflict and intense competition between groups within Papua New Guinea for recognition of status as “traditional inhabitants” by the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea, and continuous negotiation over the definition of “traditional activity”.

Fieldwork, from November 2002 to January 2005, was based at Buzi village, on the coast of the Papua New Guinea mainland adjacent to the Australian island of Boigu. I also travelled extensively throughout the Trans-Fly region of Papua New Guinea.

Trans-Fly Papuans’ accounts of what they regard the term “tradition” applies to are central to my research. Their mythology, which describes the origin and nature of the universe, and provides a social and moral charter for human interaction, gives expression to a millenarian vision, and a radically different understanding of the relationship between past and present from that contained in the concept of tradition as applied in the administration of the Torres Strait Treaty.

My thesis seeks to analyse the intersection of Trans-Fly beliefs about tradition and modernity with those of neighbouring indigenous groups, and with the administrative definition applied by the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Preparing to harvest a yam garden, Beblen, Strachan Island
Photographer: Mary Ireeuw