Ailanman never growl the sea or anything. Not say anything bad about
the sea when you are on it. Because the sea we treat like a polite thing …
– Flo Kennedy

IN THE EARLY 1990s, I spent three years living and working in the Torres Strait. The Army had commissioned me to recruit and lead men and women living in the region to serve in the Australian Army as reconnaissance soldiers. The Islanders’ nickname for the unit is ‘Sarpeye’. In English, the word means ‘sharp-eye’.