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Two indigenous languages are spoken on the Torres Strait Islands: Kala Lagaw Ya (also known by variant names and spellings), and Meriam Mir (Meriam), as well as Brokan [Broken], otherwise called Torres Strait Creole. Kala Lagaw Ya is the traditional language owned by the Western and Central islands of the Torres Strait.
The Torres Strait Islands' population was recorded at 4,514 in the 2016 Australian census, with 91.8% of these identifying as Indigenous Torres Strait Island peoples. Although counted as Indigenous Australians, Torres Strait Islander peoples, being predominantly Melanesian, are ethnically and culturally different from Aboriginal Australians.
For Torres Strait Islander people, singing and dancing is their "literature" – "the most important aspect of Torres Strait lifestyle. The Torres Strait Islanders preserve and present their oral history through songs and dances;...the dances act as illustrative material and, of course, the dancer himself is the storyteller" (Ephraim Bani, 1979).
Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap Download coordinates as: KML GPX (all coordinates) GPX (primary coordinates) GPX (secondary coordinates) Map of the Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait between Queensland, Australia and Papua New Guinea. This is a list of the named islands and island groups in the Torres Strait ...
In 1939, the Torres Strait Islanders Act was passed by the Federal Government, allowing for a form of local government on each island. On 27 January 1942, after the fall of Singapore during World War II , the Australian government gave the order to evacuate all civilians from Thursday Island, which now became a military base.
In the 1860s, beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) and pearling boats began working the reefs of Torres Strait. The first European to visit Saibai was probably a beche-de-mer operator named John Delargy, who visited the island with his South Sea Islander crew in 1869 while searching for a lost whaleboat.
In the late 1950s, there was an increasing focus on the global need for anthropological research into 'disappearing cultures'. [1] [2] This trend was also emerging in Australia in the work of researchers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, [3] [4] leading to a proposal by W.C. Wentworth MP for the conception of an Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1959.
Sele Strait (a.k.a. Galowa Strait, Revenges Strait) – between Salawati and New Guinea; Serpent's Mouth (Boca de la Serpiente) – between Trinidad and Venezuela; Shelikof Strait – between the Alaska mainland to the west and Kodiak and Afognak islands to the east, in the USA; Sibutu Passage – between Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago