Kala Lagaw Ya

Kala Lagaw Ya is a language spoken by the Torres Strait Islander peoples, primarily in the Western and Central Islands of the Torres Strait, located north of Queensland, Australia. It is considered a dialect of the same language as Kala Kawa Ya. The Torres Strait Islands themselves are an archipelago that may have once been a land bridge connecting Asia and Australia. The inhabitants are predominantly of Melanesian origin, with some Polynesian and Southeast Asian influences. The islands were annexed by Queensland in 1879, and the inhabitants later gained Australian citizenship in 1967. Efforts to regain land rights led to the significant Mabo case in 1992.1