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The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of 48,000 km 2 (19,000 sq mi), but their total land area is 566 km 2 (219 sq mi).
Around 4,000 years ago the first phase of occupation of the Torres Strait Islands began. By 2,500 years ago more of the islands were occupied and a distinctive Torres Strait Island maritime culture emerged. Agriculture also developed on some islands and by 700 years ago villages appeared. [20]
Torres Strait Islanders (/ ˈ t ɒr ɪ s / TORR-iss) [3] are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped with them as Indigenous Australians .
Melanesian Meriam people are an Indigenous Australian group of Torres Strait Islander people who are united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and live as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans on a number of inner eastern Torres Strait Islands including Mer or Murray Island, Ugar or Stephen Island and Erub or Darnley Island. [1]
The Torres Strait Islander people first settled Torres Strait Islands around 4000 years ago. [4] Culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples, they were seafarers and obtained their livelihood from seasonal horticulture and the resources of their reefs and seas.
Kaurareg (alt. Kauraraiga, plural Kauraraigalai, Kauraregale) is the name for one of the Indigenous Australian and Papuan groups collectively known as Torres Strait Islander peoples, although some identify as Aboriginal Australians. They are the traditional owners of Thursday Island (Waiben) as well as a number of Torres Strait Islands.
The Torres Strait Islanders are Indigenous to the Torres Strait Islands, which are at the northernmost tip of Queensland near Papua New Guinea. The term "Aboriginal" has traditionally been applied to Indigenous inhabitants of mainland Australia, Tasmania , and some of the other adjacent islands .
The islands of the Torres Strait have been inhabited by humans for at least 2,500 years and possibly much longer. [1] The various Torres Strait Islander communities have a unique culture and long-standing history with the islands and nearby coastlines.