Jawoyn

The Jawoyn, also written Djauan, are a group of Indigenous Australians living in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Language

Jawoyn, known as Kumertuo, is a non-Pama–Nyungan language and belongs to the Macro-Gunwinyguan group of languages of Arnhem land.[1] Recently both the Gunwinyguan and Pama-Nyungan languages have been grouped as branches of a proto-Macro-Pama–Nyungan languages. It was spoken in several dialect forms, but after resettlement in the post-war period these dialects have tended to confluesce into a standard language.[1]

Country

Map showing the traditional lands of the Aboriginal Tribes in the Roper River area of Northern Territory Australia.

The traditional lands of the Jawoyn, estimated by Norman Tindale to cover about 3,800 square miles (9,800 km2),[2] were located in the Katherine Gorge area in the Northern Territory, which they call Nitmiluk, which derives its name from nitmi meaning the "cicada song" Nabilil the crocodile heard when he set up camp at the entrance to the gorge (luk signifying "place").[3] Nitmiluk denotes specifically to a 12 kilometre stretch there consisting of a spectacular chain of chasms and ravines.[4] It has been suggested that Jawoyn people are not only those who speak that language, but also those who are associated with the landscapes inscribed in the Jawoyn language according to their foundational mythology of the Dreamtime.[5][lower-alpha 1] The language itself, in several varieties was spoken along the Katherine River system as far as the Mainoru River.[1] Their southern limits were around Maranboy, and their western extension came close to Katherine.[2]

Mythology

A widespread belief in Aboriginal thought holds that each language emerged during the formative time of creation when a demiurgic totem figure moved through the landscape crafting it and, simultaneously, endowing each topological feature with its proper word.[7] The creative being changed the language at certain transit points which then were taken as boundary markers between tribes speaking different languages.[8] Thus, in Jawoyn thinking, the landscape of the Katherine Gorge was created in the primordial time (burr) by Nabilil (Crocodile), who named all of the area's distinctive features in the Jawoyn language.[6] He came from the sea, furnished with his firestick (meya) and moved through what became Dagoman and Nangiomeri lands before reaching the gorge.[9]

The Burr dreamtime also contains other key figures of myth such as Boolong (The Rainbow Serpent) and Barraya (the kookaburra).[3]

History of contact

Many Jawoyn moved to Tandandjal on the ridge affording spring water of a grassy plain 44 miles east-north of Maranboy in November 1948 when a short-lived government settlement for Aborigines had been established. The surrounding hills were thickly forested with lancewoods and eucalypts. While exploring the area in June of that year, 1948, Mr. Ivan Frazer came across a cave littered with stone artifacts, whose walls were adorned with paintings.

Climate

Jawoyn seasonal calendar[10]
JiorrkBungarungJungalkMalaparrWorrwopmiWakaringding
January FebruaryMarch April MayJune July AugustSeptember OctoberNovember December
Main part of wet rainsLast rainsEarly hot dryMiddle dryEarly build-upThe build-up
Drying outCoolerHot and stickyFirst rains
Burning time

Alternative names

Some words

  • Yowoyn. "Yes", "alright".
  • Bobo. "Goodbye."[13]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Jawoyn people are Jawoyn not because they speak Jawoyn. But because they are linked to places to which the Jawoyn language is also linked".[6]
  2. ↑ In Tindale's classification, Kumertuo refers rather to the Djowei[11]

Sources

  • Arndt, W. (June 1962). "The Nargorkun-Narlinji Cult". Oceania. 32 (4): 298–320. JSTOR 4032938.
  • Arndt, W. (March 1966). "Seventy Year Old Records and New Information on the Nargorkun—Narlinji Cult". Oceania. 36 (3): 231–238. JSTOR 40329519.
  • Davidson, D. S. (January–June 1935). "Archaeological Problems of Northern Australia". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 65: 145–183. JSTOR 2843847.
  • Dixon, Robert M. W. (2004) [First published 2002]. Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. pp. 201–228. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1.
  • "Djauan". Ethnologue. 2016.
  • Dunbar-Hall, Peter; Gibson, Chris (2004). Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: Contemporary Aboriginal Music in Australia. University of New South Wales Press. pp. 201–228. ISBN 978-0-868-40622-0.
  • Eylmann, Erhard (1908). Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien (PDF). Berlin: D.Reimer.
  • "Language". Jawoyn Association Aboriginal Corporation. 2016.
  • Macintosh, N. W. G. (March 1951). "Archæology of Tandandjal Cave, South-West Arnhem Land". Oceania. 21 (3): 178–204. JSTOR 40328290.
  • Macintosh, N. W. G. (June 1952). "Paintings in Beswick Creek Cave, Northern Territory". Oceania. 22 (4): 256–274. JSTOR 40328351.
  • Mathews, R. H. (1901). "Ethnological notes on the aboriginal tribes of the Northern Territory". Queensland Geographical Journal. 16: 69–90.
  • McCarthy, F. D. (June 1939a). ""Trade" in Aboriginal Australia, and "Trade" Relationships with Torres Strait, New Guinea and Malaya". Oceania. 9 (4): 405–438. JSTOR 40327761.
  • McCarthy, F. D. (September 1939b). ""Trade" in Aboriginal Australia, and "Trade" Relationships with Torres Strait, New Guinea and Malaya (Continued)". Oceania. 10 (1): 80–104. JSTOR 40327722.
  • McCarthy, F. D. (December 1939c). ""Trade" in Aboriginal Australia, and "Trade" Relationships with Torres Strait, New Guinea and Malaya (Continued)". Oceania. 10 (2): 171–195. JSTOR 40327735.
  • Merlan, Francesca (1998). Caging the Rainbow: Places, Politics, and Aborigines in a North Australian Town. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-824-82045-9.
  • Merlan, Francesca (2016). "Correlation of Textual and Spatial Reference: This and That". In Verstraete, Jean-Christophe; Hafner, Diane. Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 199–217. ISBN 978-9-027-26760-3.
  • Parkhouse, T. A. (1895a). "Native tongues in the neighbourhood of Port Darwin" (PDF). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 19: 1–18.
  • Parkhouse, T. A. (1895b). Native tribes of Port Darwin and its neighbourhood. Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science – via Trove.
  • Reid, Alan J. (1995). Caging Banksias and Bilbies: Seasons of Australia: a Weekly Guide to Natural Events in Australia, with Space for Your Own Records. Gould League of Victoria. ISBN 978-1-875-68726-8.
  • Rumsey, Alan (2005) [First published 1993]. "Language and Territoriality in Aboriginal Australia". In Walsh, Michael; Yallop, Colin. Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal Studies Press. pp. 191–206. ISBN 978-0-855-75241-5.
  • Spencer, Baldwin (1914). Native tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (PDF). London: Macmillan Publishers.
  • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Djauan (NT)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University.
  • Tsunoda, Tasaku (2006). Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization: An Introduction. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-110-89658-9.
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