Agostin (Augustin) Cadawas was born in 1865 in Santa Yloco (Ilocos) in Luzon, Philippines. He came to Torres Strait possibly in the late 1800s or early 1900s, arriving in Yam Island in a long fishing boat with a house. He met and married Lavinia Ware and had two daughters, Anacleta and Josephine.

A firm Catholic, Agostin sent his daughters to a Catholic orphanage in Thursday Island when they grew up. Agostin was called ‘naked diver’ because he did not use a breathing apparatus and special suits. He fished for sea cucumbers, a sought-after delicacy in Asia, which used to teem in the Torres Strait.

His Certificate of Registration of Alien in 1917 described him as 4 feet and 11 inches tall, with brown eyes, grey hair, and a tattoo on the right arm. Agostin died at a very old age and was buried in Yam Island.

Josephine David-Petero, is the great granddaughter of Agostin. Her grandmother Anacleta married Younga David, with whom she had three children. Their eldest, Jack Louie, married Ladda George and they had three children, including Josephine.