Wurango

The Wurango or Wurrugu are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

See also: Wurango language

Country

The Wurango's tribal lands encompassed about 500 square miles (1,300 km2) around the western end of the Cobourg Peninsula including Port Essington.[1]

People

Crawford Pasco described the Wurango as he found them in 1838 as numerous, and of very good health since many reached the venerable age of 70.[2]

Social organisation

Norman Tindale speculated that mentions of the Tji and Jalo in this area clearly referring to the Wurango probably denoted hordes. If so, then he classified their respective localities as follows:

  • Tji, a Wurango horde located at the western end of the Peninsula.
  • Ja:loa Wurango horde in Port Essington.[1]

The following clan marriage sections are said to have existed:[3][lower-alpha 1]

  • Manderojelli
  • Manburlgeat
  • Mandrowilli

Alternative names
  • Auwulwarwak
  • Ja:lo. (ja:lo = 'no')
  • (?) Limba-Karadjee.[lower-alpha 2] (See Iwaidja)
  • Wa:reidbug, Woreidbug
  • Warooko
  • Wurrunga, Wurrango
  • Wuru:ku, U:ru:ku
  • Yarlo

Source: Tindale 1974, p. 238

Some words
  • naween (father)
  • noyoke (mother)

Source: Pasco 1886, p. 269

Notes
  1. G.Windsor Earl, writes of Manjarojalli, Manjarwüli, and Mambulgit, mistaking these to be castes. He added however that Manjarojalli comes from ojelli (fire) meaning that this skin section sprang from fire; that Manjarwüli came from the land, while Mambulgit, though obscure, referred to net-weavers. (Earl 1846, pp. 240–241)
  2. Limba Karadjee was the name assigned to the Port Essington tribe by E.M.Curr's informant, Crawford Pasco (Pasco 1886, p. 268)

Citations
  1. Tindale 1974, p. 238.
  2. Pasco 1886, p. 268.
  3. Pasco 1886, p. 269.

Sources
  • "AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia". AIATSIS.
  • Earl, G. Windsor (1846). "On the Aboriginal Tribes of the Northern Coast of Australia". The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 16: 239–251. JSTOR 1798232.
  • Jennison, J. C. (1927). "Notes on the language of the Elcho Island aborigines". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 51: 177–192.
  • Pasco, Crawford (1886). "Port Essington" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Volume 1. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 268–269.
  • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Wurango (NT)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
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