The Tiwi Islands are a group of islands in the Northern Territory, Australia, lying 80 kilometres north of Darwin in the Timor Sea. The group comprises Melville Island, Bathurst Island and nine smaller uninhabited islands, covering a combined area of 8,320 square kilometres.
The islands have been inhabited for thousands of years by the Tiwi people (Tunuvivi in Tiwi language), an Aboriginal Australian group whose name for the archipelago, Ratuati Irara, means ‘two islands’. At the 2021 census the population stood at 2,348. Contemporary Tiwi society blends traditional indigenous beliefs with Catholicism introduced by European settlers. The Tiwi Land Council, established under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, represents the islands’ traditional owners and holds statutory responsibilities under native title and pastoral land legislation, making it one of four such bodies in the Northern Territory.
