Badu or Badu Island, pronounced in English, in Kala Lagaw YaBadhu , is an island in the Torres Strait north of Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia. Badu Island is also a locality in the Torres Strait Island Region, and Wakaid is the only town, located on the south-east coast. This island is one of the Torres Strait Islands. The language of Badu is Kala Lagaw Ya. The Mura Badulgal Corporation administers land on behalf of the Badulgal people. The Badulgal people’s ownership of Badu and surrounding islands in the Torres Strait was recognised in a native title determination on 1 February 2014, when the Queensland Government handed over to the Badhulgal traditional owners freehold title to of land. In the, Badu Island had a population of 813 people.
History
is one of the languages of the Torres Strait. Kala Lagaw Ya is the traditional language owned by the Western and Central islands of the Torres Strait. The Kala Lagaw Ya language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Torres Shire Council. In 1606, Luís Vaz de Torres sailed to the north of Australia through Torres Strait, navigating it, along New Guinea's southern coast. Warfare, farming, fishing, canoe building, house building, turtle and dugong hunting and a host of other activities were the main occupations of Badu men until the 1870s. However, headhunting ceased with the adoption of Christianity. Pearlers established bases on the island during the 1870s and by the early 1880s the islanders were becoming dependent on wages earned as lugger crews. At the same time, the first missionaries arrived. At the peak of the shell industry in the late 1950s, the Badu fleet of 13 boats employed a workforce of 200 providing work for many men, even from other islands as well. Once the shell trade declined, many people moved to the mainland for work Badu Island State School opened on 29 January 1905.
Native title
On 1 February 2014 the Queensland Government handed over to the Badhulgal traditional owners freehold title to of land on Badu Island, ending a struggle for recognition dating back to 1939. The title deed was handed over by David Kempton, Assistant Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, to Badu Elder Lily Ahmat at a ceremony on the island. An Indigenous Land Use Agreement was signed on 7 July 2014. The Mura Badulgal Corporation administers land on behalf of the Badulgal people.
