Badhu

Badu Island lies among the western Torres Strait islands, about sixty kilometres north of Thursday Island. Its only town, Wakaid, stands on the south-east coast facing Moa. Reefs, sandbanks and narrow channels surround the island, making the sea a route that must be read through tides, winds and the positions of islands. The Badulgal people own the island and neighboring lands, and Kala Lagaw Ya links them with the western and central Torres Strait.

Badulgal life combined cultivation, fishing, canoe building, house building and the hunting of turtle and dugong. Gardens provided tubers and fruit, while the reefs supplied shellfish and fish. Men built and sailed canoes across long stretches of open water, and kinship determined access to land, reefs and ceremonial knowledge. Feuding and headhunting shaped relations before later missionary influence brought those practices to an end.

In 1606 Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through the waters north of Australia, but island peoples already understood the passages and currents. Exchange connected Badu with Cape York, New Guinea and other islands. Maritime skill, kinship and careful use of reef and garden made the island a distinct political and cultural centre rather than an isolated speck of land.