Kawadji

The Kawadji, or Uutaalnganu,[1] were an Indigenous Australian group of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.[2] The name is also used collectively for several tribes in this area.

Name

Kawadji formerly referred to a people, who inhabited Night Island and the coastal strip opposite. It now refers primarily to a modern aggregation of six tribes, collectively known by the same ethnonym kawadji which means 'people of the sandbeach' (pama malnkana).[2][3] These tribes, the Umpithamu/Koko Ompindamo, Pakadji, Yintyingka, Otati, Umpila and Pontunj[4] were the traditional owners and users of the coastal areas east of the Great Dividing Range of northeastern Cape York from Oxford Bay to Princess Charlotte Bay.[5]

Language

The Night Island Kawadji spoke, according to Norman Tindale, Yankonyu, a dialect variant of the Umpila language spoken by the Umpila and Pontunj, to whom they were closely related.[6][7]

People

The traditional Kawadji of Night Island were a small population and intermarried with clans of the mainland Barungguan.[7]

Economy

The Night Island Kawadji were known for their skill in building and then employing double-outrigger wooden canoes (tango) in adventurous voyages to outlying reefs where they would hunt for dugong, turtles, and the eggs of both sea birds and turtles.[5]

Alternative names

The following list of alternative names refers to the original people of Night Island.

  • Kawadji. (This term was also an exonym used by the Kaantju and other tribes within the interior, bearing the general sense of 'east' (kawai)
  • Mälnkänidji ( formed from malqkan (beach) and (-idja (a suffix meaning 'belonging to')
  • Jangkonju. (a name for their language, shared by the Pontunj)
  • Yankonyu.
  • Night Island people.[6]

Notes

    Citations

    Sources

    • Haddon, A. C. (2011) [First published 1935]. Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits. Volume 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-17986-7.
    • Hale, H. M.; Tindale, N.B. (1933). "Aborigines of Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland". Records of the South Australia Museum. Adelaide. 5 (1): 64–116.
    • Rigsby, Bruce; Chase, Athol (2014). "The Sandbeach People and Dugong hunters of Eastern Cape York Peninsula: property in land and sea country". In Peterson, Nicolas; Rigsby, Bruce. Customary marine tenure in Australia. Sydney University Press. pp. 307–350. ISBN 978-1-743-32389-2.
    • Sharp, R. Lauriston (March 1939). "Tribes and Totemism in North-East Australia". Oceania. 9 (3): 254–275. JSTOR 40327744.
    • Thomson, Donald F. (1933). "The Hero Cult, Initiation and Totemism on Cape York". Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 63: 453–537. JSTOR 2843801.
    • Thomson, Donald F. (July–December 1934). "The Dugong Hunters of Cape York". Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 64: 237–263. JSTOR 2843809.
    • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Kawadji (QLD)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
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