Ngadjunmaia

The Ngadjunmaia are an indigenous Australian people of Western Australia.

Country

Ngadjunmaia traditional land took in some 20,600 square miles (53,000 km2), running south from Goddard Creek to Mount Ragged, Israelite Bay and Point Malcolm. The last named area was land they claim in contention with the Nyunga branch of the Wudjari. Their western borders were around Fraser Range. The eastern frontier was in the vicinity of Narethal and Point Culver. Mount Andrew and Balladonia were also part of Ngadjunmaia territory.[1]

Curiosity

Richard Helms, in his account of the Elders Expedition, writes of a case of polydactyly he came across among a people of this region:-

A remarkable lusus naturae was observed among the women of the Frazer Range, one of whom had six perfect fingers on each hand and the same number of toes on each foot. Not only were these limbs perfectly formed, but the corresponding metacarpal and metatarsal bones were also perfect. Two of her brothers and a sister had, I was told, exactly the same deformity.[2]

Norman Tindale identified the tribe here as the Ngadjunmaia.[3]

Alternative names

  • Ngadjunpakara, Ngadjunpukara.
  • Ngadjunma
  • Ngadju: (nadan is their word for yes)
  • Ba:donjunga ( a Wudjari exonym referring to subincised men
  • Bardok. ('subincised')
  • Pardoak (Wiilman exonym).
  • Ngadjumaja.(of Njunga tribe to south)
  • Malba. (southernj tribal name, meaning 'the circumcised') for their language, and also those of the Kalaako and Kalamaia)
  • Fraser Range tribe.
  • Minninng.
  • West Meening, West Mining.
  • Buljigu. (name of a dialect spoken by northern bands).[4]

Notes

    Citations

    1. ↑ Tindale 1974, pp. 250–25i.
    2. ↑ Helms 1893, p. 244.
    3. ↑ Tindale 1974, p. 251.
    4. ↑ Tindale 1974, p. 250-251.

    Sources

    • "AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia". AIATSIS.
    • "Tindale Tribal Boundaries" (PDF). Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Western Australia. September 2016.
    • Helms, Richard (1893). "Anthropology of the Elder Exploring Expedition. 1871-1872". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 16: 237–332.
    • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Ngadjunmaia (WA)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University.
    • Wells, Lawrence Allen (1893). Journal of the Elder Scientific Expedition, 1891-1892. Adelaide: C.E. Bristow.


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