Provenance of People: Constructing an Isoscape in the Kaurareg Archipelago, Torres Strait

Shawnee Gorringe1* and the Kaurareg peoples2

In 2022, following an unusually high tide, the burial site of an Aboriginal woman was discovered on the southwestern Torres Strait Island of Muralag. An emergency rescue excavation soon followed, in collaboration between archaeologists and the local Kaurareg peoples. A reburial procession then occurred, and the ancestor was reinterred by the community further inland, and out of the way of the encroaching tides. The Kaurareg community had many questions about who the woman may be, and the life that they lived. And so, in order to understand more, a 1st molar tooth was taken from the individual with the support and permission of the Kaurareg peoples. The Kaurareg were particularly interested in better understanding where the Ancestor occupied and agreed to investigate the use of strontium isotopes for provenancing - and perhaps even repatriation - of ancestors in the Kaurareg archipelago, Torres Strait. This paper will present the results of an Honours project, whereby an isoscape has been constructed of the Torres Strait southwestern islands in order to assess the story of the Ancestor.