Arkai (Kubin) – Mua Island

Arkai (Kubin) Community is one of two communities on Mua Island. It is located on the south side of the Island, close to the island’s only airstrip.

Mua Island is the second largest island in the Torres Strait. Similar to surrounding islands, Mua is characterised by mounds of rock and is lightly vegetated and well-watered.

Kubin is a community largely made up of people who moved from Muralag (Prince of Wales Island) and other nearby Torres Strait Islands in the early 1870s, along with survivors from Hammond Island (Kiriri), who were moved to Poid on the southwestern corner of Moa Island in 1921.

Poid was abandoned after WWII; one group moving back to their Narupai (Horn Island) homeland and the remainder moved east to Kubin under the leadership of Wees Nawia.

Kubin residents retained their links with the Thursday Island, Bamaga and Cowal Creek (Injinoo) communities and with their help, established a number of business enterprises.

In 1978 the housing cooperative, MAW Corporation, was formed. Two years later it was in conflict with the Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs (DAIA) Queensland for building houses at Kubin. DAIA Director, PJ Killoran ruled that only Island councils would build on reserve land and that the rent from housing would go to the DAIA-controlled island fund.