Thinking Cairns and Cambridge: some aspects of the relationship between anthropology and Torres Strait.

[Extract] This essay is a modified version of a paper delivered at a recent conference held in the United Kingdom to mark the centenary of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Strait. The paper, 'Delight and Frustration: Some Yam Island people's responses to the products of the Cambridge Expedition 1898-1899', was not solely on the artworks and artefacts collected during this period, but rather on a whole range of materials acquired and subsequently produced by the expedition members. It explored contemporary responses of one group of Torres Strait Island people to the 'products' of this nineteenth century expedition. Rather than characterising Torres Strait Islanders as holding unified, undifferentiated opinions on artefacts and photographs for instance, it pointed out that the sometimes divergent responses by Islanders towards increasing knowledge of Torres Strait collections held in museums and increasing Torres Strait Islander access to these collections require consideration by curators of Torres Strait cultural materials