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Yam Island

Native name: Yama; IamaNickname: Turtle-backed Island
Landsat image of Yam Island
A map of the Torres Strait Islands showing Yam Island in the central waters of Torres Strait
Geography
Location	Tancred Passage, Northern Australia
Coordinates	9°54′05″S 142°46′30″E / 9.9014°S 142.7750°E / -9.9014; 142.7750 (Yam Island (centre of island))
Archipelago	Bourke Isles group, Torres Strait Islands
Adjacent to	Torres Strait
Total islands	1
Area	2 km (0.77 sq mi)
Administration
Australia
State	Queensland
Local government area	Torres Strait Island Region
Demographics
Ethnic groups	Torres Strait Islanders

Yam Island Queensland
Yam Island
Coordinates	9°54′04″S 142°46′27″E / 9.9011°S 142.7741°E / -9.9011; 142.7741 (Yam Island (centre of locality))
Population	275 (SAL 2021)
Postcode(s)	4875
Area	1.9 km (0.7 sq mi)
Time zone	AEST (UTC+10:00)
LGA(s)	Torres Strait Island Region
State electorate(s)	Cook
Federal division(s)	Leichhardt
Suburbs around Yam Island: Torres Strait Torres Strait Torres Strait Torres Strait Yam Island Torres Strait Torres Strait Torres Strait Torres Strait

Yam Island, called Yama or Iama in the Kulkalgau Ya language or Turtle-backed Island in English, is an island of the Bourke Isles group of the Torres Strait Islands, located in the Tancred Passage of the Torres Strait in Queensland, Australia. The island is situated approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of Thursday Island and measures about 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi). The island is an official locality known as Iama Island within the local government area of Torres Strait Island Region. The town, also called Yam Island, is located on the north-west coast of the island. In the 2021 census, Iama Island had a population of 275 people.

Its indigenous language is Kulkalgau Ya, a dialect of the Western-Central Torres Strait language, Kalaw Lagaw Ya.

Geography

The town on the island, also called Yam Island, is on the north-west coast (9°53′58″S 142°46′09″E / 9.8994°S 142.7692°E / -9.8994; 142.7692 (Yam Island (town centre))).

Yam Island Airport is in the north of the locality (9°53′57″S 142°46′28″E / 9.8993°S 142.7745°E / -9.8993; 142.7745 (Yam Island Airport)).

History

Mabuiag-Badu legends have Austronesian people from far-east Papua settled on Parema in the Fly Delta and married local trans-Fly women (of the group of peoples now called Gizra, Wipi, Bine, Meriam). Later they moved down to Torres Strait and settled on Yam Island, and then spread from there to different island groups. Westwards they went to Moa, Mabuiag, and there fought with local Aboriginal people and married some of the women, though apparently ‘purists’ who wanted to avoid further mixture moved north to Saibai, Boigu and Dauan. These initial settlements could have been anything up to around 2800 years ago. Eastwards they settled all the Central and Eastern Islands. They did not seem to have gone south to the Muralag group at this time. Much later, the Trans-Fly Meriam people of Papua moved to Mer, Erub and Ugar, taking most of the original inhabitants' land. These people, Western-Central Islanders, they called the Nog Le Common People, as opposed to the Meriam People, who are the noble people. Western-central Islanders in general are called the Gam Le Body People, as they are more thick-set on the whole than the slender Meriam.

This was the establishment of the Islanders as we know them today. Their languages are the mix of cultures mentioned above: the Western-Central language is an Australian (Paman) language with Austronesian and Papuan elements as cultural overlays, and the Eastern Language is dominantly Papuan, though with significant Australian and Austronesian elements.

According to Papuan legend, a developing mud island near the mouth of a river to the south of the Fly Delta was first settled by people from Yam Island (in Kulkalgau Ya/Kalaw Lagaw Ya the name of the island is Dhaaru (Daru)), before the time that the Kiwai conquered the coastal parts of the South-West Fly Delta (perhaps at most around 700 years ago). The Yama had long-established trading and family contacts with the Trans-Fly Papuans, starting from the original Papuo-Austronesian settlements. When the Kiwai people started raiding and taking over territory, some of the Yama escaped to the Trans-Fly Papuans on the mainland, and others went across to Saibai, Boigu and Dauan to join their fellow Islanders there. However, the majority wanted to keep their tribal identity, and so decided to get as far away from the Kiwai as possible, and headed to the far south of Torres Strait, and settled on Moa, Muri and the Muralag group. A small core of Yama people stayed on Daru, and became virtually absorbed by the Daru Kiwai. The Kiwai call these people the Hiàmo (also Hiàma, Hiàmu - a Kiwai 'mispronunciation' of Yama, while the Yama people that moved to the Muralag group called themselves the Kauralaigalai, alt. Kauraraigalai (Kaurareg), in their modern dialect Kaiwaligal ‘Islanders’, in contrast to the Dhaudhalgal ‘Mainlanders of Papua’ and the Kawaigal or Ageyal ‘Aborigines of Australia’ (who are also Dhaudhalgal ‘Mainlanders’).

The Kaiwaligal (Kaurareg) and the Kulkalgal (Central Islanders) still have a close relationship, and traditionally considered themselves as closely related, much more than either is to the Mabuiag-Badu people or the Saibai-Dauan-Boigu people. The Kulkagal (Yama and others) have also kept their traditional ties with the Trans-Fly people, and also now with the Kiwai, who after their beginning as conquerors, have now become a part of the traditional trade network.

European contact

The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Yam Island was by the Spanish expedition of Luís Vaez de Torres on 7 September 1606. It was charted as Isla de Caribes (Island of Caribs) because of the tall warriors that were found there. In 1792, they came aboard William Bligh's two ships seeking iron. Bligh named Tudu 'Warrior Island' after an attack they later made. The London Missionary Society established a station at Yam's western end making it possible for a permanent village with people settling around the mission. Many of the men took jobs on pearling luggers and a pearling station operated on Tudu during the 1870s with another at Nagi (Mount Ernest Island, southwest of Yam).

Pacific Islanders working at Nagi station later settled on Yam. During World War II, many Yam men enlisted in the army, forming C Company of the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion.

Despite their seafaring background, Yam people were fairly isolated from the outside world until well after the war. An airstrip was constructed in 1974 and the island's connection to the Torres Strait telephone exchange occurred in 1980. Yam has provided the Torres Strait with important political leaders including Getano Lui (Snr) (grandson of the first LMS teacher, Lui Getano Lifu) and Getano Lui (Jnr), former chairman of the Island Coordinating Council.

In the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, Margaret Lawrie visited the Torres Strait, often staying for months at a time. Becoming friends with many Torres Strait Islanders she was approached by some to record and write down their stories as well as family histories. This resulted in Margaret conducting research into the cultural history of the Torres Strait and collecting transcripts, audio recordings, photographs, slides, art works and stories. Together they formed the basis for the publication of Myths and Legends of Torres Strait (1970) and Tales from Torres Strait (1972). This collection, which was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2008.

Yam Island State School was opened on 29 January 1985. On 1 January 2007 it became the Yam Island Campus of the Tagai State College, which operates at 17 campuses throughout the Torres Strait.

Demographics

Education

Yam Island Campus is a primary (Early Childhood-6) campus of Tagai State College. It is in Kebisu Street (9°53′58″S 142°46′11″E / 9.8995°S 142.7696°E / -9.8995; 142.7696 (Tagai State College - Yam Island Campus)).

Amenities

Torres Strait Island Regional Council operates the Dawita Cultural Centre on Church Road. On 26 July 2007, the centre was opened, including an Indigenous Knowledge Centre (IKC). The IKC was established in partnership with the council of the time, and the State Library of Queensland. In addition to providing a library service, the IKC is a space used by the community to revive, preserve, and share their culture through language, art, song, and dance. Several projects and programs have been delivered through the IKC, capturing stories and sharing knowledge.

Yam Island's state emergency service operates from Kebisu Street.

Margaret Lawrie collection

The State Library of Queensland holds the Margaret Lawrie Collection of Torres Strait Islander material. This collection, which was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2008, consists of material gathered by Margaret Lawrie on the Torres Strait Islander people's culture between 1964 and 1973.

As well as genealogies the collection also contains children's games, maps, music, photographs, plants, sketches, stories and vocabularies of the Torres Strait, such as the Badu, Mabuiag, Thursday Island, Bamaga (located on the mainland), Muralag (Prince of Wales Island), Ugar, Boigu Island, Murray Island, Warraber, Dauan Island, Naghir (Mount Ernest Island), Yam Island, Erub (Darnley Island), Poruma (Coconut Island), Yorke Island, Horn Island, Saibai Island, Kubin Village / St Pauls (Moa Island) and Seisia (located on the mainland).

Notable people

Notable people who are from or who have lived on Yam Island include:

• Margaret Lawrie (1917–2003)
• Ethel May Eliza Zahel (1877–1951), teacher and public servant.
• Maino Kebisu, leader, statesman, and storyteller

See also

• List of Torres Strait Islands
• Yam Island Airport

Notes

1. Don Diego Prado y Tovar, in his chronicles of the expedition, referred to the island as "isla de caribes muy grandes de a 12 palmos y medio" (island of very tall caribs of 12.5 spans) In the matter of the length of a span, palmo, there were different values in use in 1600; according to the sixteenth-century geographer and mathematician Petrus Apianus, a palmo was the stretch of four fingers, not including the thumb, or about 15 centimetres (5.9 in). This would give the natives of this island a height of up to 190 centimetres (75 in).

References

1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Iama Island (suburb and locality)". Australian Census 2021 QuickStats. Retrieved 28 June 2022. 
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Yam Island (suburb and locality)". Australian Census 2021. 
3. "Yam Island – island in the Torres State Island Region (entry 38377)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
4. "Iama Island – locality in Torres Strait Island Region (entry 46708)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
5. "Iama Island – locality in the Torres Strait Island Region (entry 46708)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
6. ^ "Yam Island – population centre in the Torres Strait Island Region (entry 44493)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
7. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (28 June 2022). "Iama Island (SAL)". 2021 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 28 February 2023.
8. "Heliports and landing grounds - Queensland". Queensland Open Data. Queensland Government. 22 October 2020. Archived from the original on 16 November 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
9. Hilder, Brett The voyage of Torres, Brisbane, 1980, pp. 75-77, 80
10. This Misplaced Pages article incorporates CC BY 4.0 licensed text from: "Online index of names to the Margaret Lawrie collection". State Library of Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Collections. State Library of Queensland. 8 July 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
11. ^ "Opening and closing dates of Queensland Schools". Queensland Government. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
12. Australian Bureau of Statistics (9 March 2006). "Yam Island (Indigenous Area)". 2001 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
13. Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Iama Island (SSC)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
14. "State and non-state school details". Queensland Government. 9 July 2018. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
15. "Tagai State College". Tagai State College. 29 November 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
16. "Yam Island - Iama Ngurpay Lag". Tagai State College. 21 February 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
17. "Iama (Dawita Cultural Centre)". Public Libraries Connect. 28 August 2017. Archived from the original on 29 January 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
18. This Misplaced Pages article incorporates text from Iama IKC: more than a library (1 August 2022) by Indigenous services published by the State Library of Queensland under CC BY licence, accessed on 18 January 2023.
19. "Emergency services facilities - Queensland". Queensland Open Data. Queensland Government. 12 November 2020. Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
20. "Margaret Lawrie Collection". State Library of Queensland. The State of Queensland. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
21. "Margaret Lawrie Torres Strait Island Collection". The Australian Register: UNESCO Memory of the World Program. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
22. This Misplaced Pages article incorporates CC BY 4.0 licensed text from: "Margaret Lawrie Collection". State Library of Queensland Torres Strait Islander Collection. State Library of Queensland. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
23. Margaret Lawrie
24. Lawrie, Margaret (1990). "Zahel, Ethel May Eliza (1877–1951)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Archived from the original on 22 December 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
25. This Misplaced Pages article incorporates text from Maino – The Last Mamoose of Yam Island, Torres Strait (3 November 2022) published by the State Library of Queensland under CC BY licence, accessed on 1 June 2022.

Further reading

• Lui, L., Teske, T. (1987). Yam, island of Torres Strait. Far Northern Schools Development Unit. ISBN 0724225676. — full text online

External links

• Yam State School
• "Maino – The Last Mamoose of Yam Island, Torres Strait". John Oxley Library. State Library of Queensland.

Significant case law

• "Yam Island Ergon Energy Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA)". 24 May 2005.
• David on behalf of the Iama People and Tudulaig v State of Queensland [2004] FCA 1576 (13 December 2004), Federal Court
• Mabo v Queensland (No 2) [1992] HCA 23, (1992) 175 CLR 1 (3 June 1992), High Court.

v t e List of Torres Strait topics
Torres Strait Islands, islets, and cays	Bellevue group Aipus Cap Kamutnab Keatinge Mabuiag Pulu Subur Warakuikul Talab Widul Bourke group Aukane Aureed Kabbikane Layoak Mimi Roberts Yam Duncan group Kanig Maitak Meth Inner group Port Lihou Yeta Adolphus Channel group Albany Bush Eborac Ida Middle Brother Talbot group Aubussi Boigu Moimi The Three Sisters group Bet Poll Sue Yorke group Keats Marsden Rennel Smith Ungrouped Allison Anchor Arden Badu Barn Barney Bond Booby Bramble Browne Campbell Canoe Castle Coconut Crab Dalrymple Darnley Dauan Dayman Deliverance Dove Dugong Dumaralug East East Strait Entrance Farewell Flat Friday Gabba Getullai Goods Great Woody Green Halfway Hammond Hawkesbury High Horn Kaumag Kerr Lacey Little Adolphus Little Woody Lowry Mai Meddler Moa Morilug Mouinndo Mount Adolphus Mount Ernest Murangi Murray Nepean Nicklin North North Possession North West Obelisk Packe Passage Pearce Phipps Portlock Prince of Wales Quoin Red Red Wallis Roko Saddle Saibai Salter Sassie Spencer Stephens Suarji Thursday Tobin Travers Tree Trochus Tudu Tukupai Turnagain Turtle Head Turtle Turu Twin Underdown Wednesday West Whale Woody Wallis York Yorke Zagai
People, culture, communities and languages	Notable Torres Strait Islanders Christine Anu Seaman Dan Aaron Fa'aoso Josh Hoffman Nathan Jawai Ellen Jose Robert Lui Eddie Mabo Rachael Maza Patty Mills Rita Mills Mills Sisters Danny Morseu Tanu Nona Albert Proud Wendell Sailor Sam Thaiday Brent Webb Jesse Williams Culture Indigenous music of Australia Mabo (film) Taba Naba Communities Bamaga Kaurareg Mabuiag Meriam (people) Seisia Languages Bine Eastern Trans-Fly Gizrra Kalaw Lagaw Ya Meriam Torres Strait Creole Torres Strait English Wipi
Governance and legal matters	Governance Shire of Torres Torres Strait Islander Flag Torres Strait Island Region Torres Strait Regional Authority Legal cases and principles Akiba v Commonwealth Mabo v Queensland No 1 No 2 Terra nullius
Buildings and structures	Boigu Island Airport Booby Island Light Coconut Island Airport Darnley Island Airport Eborac Island Light Goods Island Light Kubin Airport Murray Island Airport Saibai Island Airport Warraber Island Airport Wyborn Reef Light Yam Island Airport Yorke Island Airport
Other	Adolphus Channel Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Birds of Boigu, Saibai and Dauan Islands Endeavour Strait Alfred Cort Haddon Margaret Lawrie Sea Swift Warul Kawa Indigenous Protected Area
Category Commons See also: List of Torres Strait Islands

• Torres Strait Islands
• Torres Strait Island Region
• Localities in Queensland