Drum from Saibai Island, Torres Strait, c1950s

Drum from Saibai Island, Torres Strait, c1950s

The movement of material culture from Papua New Guinea to islands in the Torres Strait clearly indicate the reality of an unbounded landscape where borders imposed by colonial and later administrations had no bearing on the interactions of people across land and sea. This drum was made in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, yet was in use on Saibai island, and collected from there in the 1950s.