Uutaalnganu
The Night Island Kawadji, or Uutaalnganu,[1] were an Indigenous Australian group of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.[2][3] The name is also used collectively for several tribes in this area, such as the Pontunj / Jangkonj (Yanganyu), whose language is unconfirmed.[4]
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][5] These tribes, the Umpithamu/Koko Ompindamo, Pakadji, Yintyingka, Otati, Umpila and Pontunj[6] 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.[7]
Language
The Night Island Kawadji spoke, according to Norman Tindale, Yankonyu, a dialect of the Umpila language spoken by the Umpila and Pontunj, to whom they were closely related.[8][9]
People
The traditional Kawadji of Night Island were a small population and intermarried with clans of the mainland Barungguan.[9]
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.[7]
Curiosity
Narcisse Pelletier survived a shipwreck of a French merchantman Saint Paul in 1858, when he was abandoned by the crew. He was taken in by the Kawadji/Pama Malngkana, with linguistic and other evidence pointing to the area of the Uutaalnganu. He stayed with them 17 years.[10]
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)
- Night Island people[8]
Names of other peoples also called 'Kawadji' -
- Mälnkänidji ( formed from malqkan (beach) and (-idja (a suffix meaning 'belonging to')
- Jangkonju (a name for their language, shared by the Pontunj)
- Yankonyu
Notes
Citations
- Rigsby & Chase 2014, p. 313 n.4.
- Tindale 1974.
- Y211 Uutaalnganu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- Y38 Yanganyu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- Thomson 1933, pp. 457–458.
- Thomson 1933, pp. 456–457.
- Haddon 2011, p. 266.
- Tindale 1974, p. 175.
- Hale & Tindale 1933, p. 70.
- Anderson 2009.
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 Australian 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 (eds.). 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. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1939.tb00232.x. JSTOR 40327744.
- Anderson, Stephanie (2018) [2009]. Pelletier: The Forgotten Castaway of Cape York. Melbourne Books. ISBN 978-1-922-12902-4.
- Thomson, Donald F. (1933). "The Hero Cult, Initiation and Totemism on Cape York". Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 63: 453–537. doi:10.2307/2843801. 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. doi:10.2307/2843809. 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.