Seafarers & Food Growers

The Meriam lived in eight clan territories around the coastal rim of their Island homes. They owned and worked plots of land which spread across the island. A vast patchwork of irregular strips, some as small as one hundred square metres.

"They are crooked boundaries", James Rice, a senior Meriam land owner explained in 1989. not at all like the straight line boundaries of land allotments in Australia.

The Meriam practiced slash and burn agriculture, and fished from the shore, in lagoons, and on the Islands fringing reefs. They grew staple foods in the rich volcanic soil, sweet potatoes, manioc, coconuts, bananas and other fruit, but most importantly, some thirty varieties of yam, a crop shrouded in secret garden lore.

They were also great seafarers, and took part in a complex network of customary exchange throughout the region.