Ranger Boat

The Rangers with Minister

Today I had a great opportunity to witness the unveiling and blessing of a new boat for the Torres Strait Island Ranger Service. The ranger service consists of a bunch of locals working throughout the straits to enforce environmental protection laws, keep communities clean and work with schools to pass on knowledge regarding hunting and fishing and more good vibe community stuff like that. Each island has their own ranger team and all the teams had come to Badu today for the special event. They also got official ranger badges that looked pretty rad.

The flags

The boat itself was pretty impressive and the Rangers are planning to use it to better enforce fishing laws in the waters surrounding the islands. The locals here are allowed to catch turtle and dugong and dive for crayfish in accordance with traditional practices andstrict sustainability measures but of course, if this is going to work, those measures need to be enforced... hence the sweet boat.

Anyway some politicians from “down south” (as the locals here call the rest of Australia) came with bloated entourages and gave a few dull speeches.  Later, members of the Torres Strait regional council spoke, the local priest gave a blessing, and Jenny Macklin, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, smashed a coconut on the boat to christen it, giving herself a face full of coco juice in the process.

Music and dancing followed which was of course, what everyone was really there for. Personally I wanted to see the boat in action but this didn’t happen. Overall it was great to see the locals getting excited about their achievements and taking so much pride in their community. Given that Indigenous communities tend to cop so much shit in Australia, it’s nice to witness something really positive happening. Enjoy the videos.