Tales of Torres Strait: the historical novel and localised memories

In 1933 the prolific Australian author Ion Idriess published Drums of Mer, a novel set in the Torres Strait Islands in the nineteenth century. This popular novel, I would suggest, has had greater impact on Yam Island people than its anthropological cousin, A. C. Haddon's six-volume Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits (1901-1935) [see 7.1]' and constitutes an important source of cultural and historical information. It is, however, only one of the many means by which Yam Island people have been able to construct a strong sense of themselves as a unique people, and as members of the Australian nation state.