Margaret Lawrie

Margaret Elizabeth Lawrie, née Hayes (1917–2003) was famous for capturing and retelling many of the myths and legends of the Torres Strait Islander people.

The Margaret Lawrie Collection is included in UNESCO's Australian Memory of the World Register.

This resulted in Margaret conducting research into the cultural history of the Torres Strait and collecting transcripts, audio recordings, photographs, slides, works of art and oral stories.

Anyone can search the Margaret Lawrie Collection index records, but restrictions are placed on the digitised genealogy charts due to the private and sensitive nature of the material.

His expedition team from Cambridge University visited the Torres Strait in 1898 publishing the results of their regional ethnography in six volumes between 1901 and 1935.