1. Colonisation
2. Cooking
3. Costumes
4. Country
5. Culture
6. Family
7. Fishing
8. Glossaries and vocabularies
9. History
10. Identity
11. Indigenous knowledge
12. Kaurareg people (Y1) (Qld TSI SC54-07)
13. Land rights
14. Relationship to place
15. Torres Strait Islands (Qld TSI SC54, SC55-05)

The Kaurareg are an Aboriginal seafaring people whose country is the inner islands off the tip of Cape York Peninsula in far North Queensland. Although considered Torres Strait Islanders they have a close connection to the Aboriginal clans on the northern part of Cape York. For thousands of years the Kaurareg have used outrigger canoes and other watercraft to navigate their homelands. Kaurareg identity and Culture is closely linked to their relationship with the land, water and sky.

The Kaurareg had experienced mutually respectful contact with Europeans on passing ships long before colonisation on the mainland. White settlement on Cape York brought major changes to the Kaurareg’s lives with threats of violence and imposing of control over their lives. Despite their best efforts to protect themselves, the Kaurareg were in 1922 forcibly removed from their islands. During the 1940s a number of families moved back to their island Nurupai and refused to move.

‘Kaurareg Mob’ is a small but informative book that provides details of their history since white colonisation while weaving in traditional stories and their strong connection with their homeland, Culture and heritage. In May 2001, the Federal Court granted the Kaurareg people Native Title rights to seven of the islands in the Kaurareg Archipelago.

Included are maps of their island homelands, a glossary of important terms and an index.

Series title: First Australians; Plenty Stories

1. ABC Rural ‘Back Roads’ 19 December 2016 ‘Kaurareg People History’ https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154271985752635
2. SBS/NITV 25 November 2012 ‘Kaurareg’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhpKCpw1fIQ
3. Wikipedia ‘Kaurareg’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaurareg