Kaurareg, Prince of Wales Island

Kaurareg is the name for one of the Indigenous Australian groups collectively known as Torres Strait Islander peoples. They are lower Western Islanders, based on the Muralag group. In common with the other peoples of the Torres Strait Island, they commanded impressive sailing outrigger canoe technology, traded throughout the Straits, fishing and trading with other Torres Strait Island groups. Similarly, they also regularly visited the Australian mainland of Cape York Peninsula, and retained ceremonial, marriage and trading alliances with several Aboriginal Australian groups there. Subject to reprisals after being blamed for an incident in which a Western schooner and its crew were destroyed, their numbers rapidly diminished with the onset of white colonisation and administration. After World War II, descendants of the Kaurareg began to return to their traditional islands, and lay claim to native title over several of them. ()