Ayapathu

Last updated

The Ayapathu people, otherwise known as the Ayabadhu or Aiyaboto, were an Indigenous Australian group, living on the western side of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.

Contents

Language

Ayapathu [1] appears to have been closely related to the coastal language of Yintyingka, though structurally different [2] and they may be considered dialects of the same language. [3] Etymologically, aya means 'language', while patha may be cognate with the homophonous Yintyingka word for 'to eat', paralleling the ethnonym Wik-Mungkan (speech (wik)+eat (mungka). [4]

Little is otherwise known of the language. Some word lists were compiled from information given by George Rocky, whose vernacular was Umpila, though his father was an Ayapathu. He was raised from boyhood at the Lockhart River Mission, and then worked on Japanese lugger boats fishing for beche-de-mer and pearls. The Japanese generally treated their aboriginal hired labourers better than white employers did. The last informants on the language had generally grown up with a neighbouring tribe's culture, and Ayapathu was no longer their first language. Thus just as George Rocky primarily spoke Umpila Jack Shephard, whose mother was an Ayapathu, was himself a Kaantju clansman. [5] The last speakers died out in the late 20th century.

Country

According to Norman Tindale, Ayapathu tribal lands extended over some 1,900 sq. miles, stretching from north of Ebagoola, to Musgrave in the south. Their western boundaries were formed by the headwaters of the Coleman and Holroyd rivers. To the east, they reached the Great Dividing Range and Violet Vale. [6]

History

The Ayapathu were an inland tribe [lower-alpha 1] closely related to the coastal Yintyingka people. The first mention of them in settlement records comes from 19th century police reports, [8] in particular those of William Parry-Okeden and sergeant George Smith of the Musgrave Mounted Native Police in 1897, both connected with complaints by pastoralists laid against the aborigines whose land they were occupying. [9] [10] Donald Thomson and Ursula McConnel studied the tribes of the region intensely, the latter from 1927 to 1934, nonetheless she provided little information on them other than noting that their hunting grounds were on the upper Holroyd River, that they intermarried with the Kaantju, and held corroborees with that tribe and the Wik-Mungkan at the junction where the Hoyroyd meets the Pretender river. The Wik-Mungkan tribe lay to their west, the Kaantju to their north, and the Koko Taiyari southwest. [11] Otherwise they (called Aiyaboto), reduced by pastoral expansion over their lands, gathered for hand-outs on the river bed outside Coen. [12] [13] The profound disruption to the Ayapathu caused by colonial expropriations devastated the integrity of their tribal world, and they were dispersed into remnants, with a profound loss of their original tribal identity. In recent years, through ethnographic reconstruction, close study of folk memories and land claims, the Ayapathu descendants have begun to reclaim part of their heritage. [14]

Society

The Ayapathu like other tribes in the area were land-holding exogamous estate-holding clans, typified by patrilineal recruitment. The actual land-use was determined by hordes, whose members were generally affiliated to the tribes holding these estates. [9] The kinship terminology of the Ayapathu was essentially identical to that among the Yintyingka. [3]

Alternative names

This is a list of the different names used in the historical ethnographic literature to refer to the Ayapathu:

Notes

  1. ↑ The word 'tribe' is used with caution. It implied that the Ayapathu were more properly defined as those clans speaking the Ayapathu language, and not 'corporate social groups'. [7]

Citations

  1. ↑ Dixon 2002, p. xxxi.
  2. ↑ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, pp. 15, 17.
  3. 1 2 Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 51.
  4. ↑ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 14.
  5. ↑ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 59.
  6. 1 2 Tindale 1974, p. 164.
  7. ↑ Smith 2000, p. 226.
  8. ↑ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, pp. 17–18.
  9. 1 2 Smith 2000, p. 225.
  10. ↑ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 18.
  11. ↑ McConnel 1930b, p. 191.
  12. ↑ Verstraete & Rigsby 2015, p. 20.
  13. ↑ McConnel 1930a, p. 98.
  14. ↑ Smith 2000, p. 224.

Related Research Articles

The Wik peoples are an Indigenous Australian group of people from an extensive zone on western Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland, speaking several different languages. They are from the coastal flood plains bounding the Gulf of Carpentaria lying between Pormpuraaw and Weipa, and inland the forested country drained by the Archer, Kendall and Holroyd rivers. The first ethnographic study of the Wik people was undertaken by the Queensland born anthropologist Ursula McConnel. Her fieldwork focused on groups gathered into the Archer River Mission at what is now known as Aurukun.

The Wik-Mungkan people are an Aboriginal Australian group of peoples who traditionally ranged over an extensive area of the western Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland and speak the Wik Mungkan language. They were the largest branch of the Wik people.

The Kaantyu people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula in north Queensland. They live in the area around the present-day town of Coen. Most of their traditional tribal land has been taken over for cattle stations. Kaantju refers to the hook of the yuli, their word for woomera.

The Yintyingka, now extinct, were an Indigenous Australian people of central and eastern Cape York Peninsula.

The Kugu Nganhcara, also Wikngenchera, Wik-Ngandjara (Ngandjara) are an Australian group of peoples living in the middle western part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia. Today they are primarily concentrated at Aurukan and the Edward river settlement.

The Barungguan are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of Northern Queensland. The name is associated with three languages: Ganganda, Umpithamu and Morrobolam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uutaalnganu</span> Group of Aboriginal Australians

The Uutaalnganu people, also known as Night Island Kawadji, are an Aboriginal Australian group of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. The name is also used collectively for several peoples in this area, such as the Pontunj / Jangkonj (Yanganyu), whose language is unconfirmed.

The Umpila people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the eastern Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. The majority of the remnant of the Umpila now live in Lockhart.

The Umpithamu, also once known to ethnographers as the Koko Ompindamo, are a contemporary Aboriginal Australian people of the eastern Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. Norman Tindale, transcribing their ethnonym Umpithamu as Umbindhamu, referred to them as a horde of the Barungguan.

The Ajabakan were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland.

The Wikianji were an indigenous Australian tribe of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland.

The Wikampama, also known as Wik Ompom, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.

The Wakara or Wakura were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.

The Wiknatanja, also spelt Wik Ngathanya, are an Aboriginal Australian people, one of the Wik peoples of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland.

The Wikmean people, also spelt Wik Me'an, are an Aboriginal Australian people, one of the Wik peoples of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland.

The Wik Epa, also spelt Wikepa, are an Aboriginal Australian people, one of the Wik peoples of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland.

The Wikatinda were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland. They were one of the Wik peoples, but their language is unattested.

The Wik Elken, also spelt Wik-Kalkan and also known as Wik-Ngatharr, are an Aboriginal Australian people, one of the Wik peoples of the Cape York Peninsula of the state of Queensland.

The Nggamadi were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland.

The Kokomini (Gugumini) are reported to have been an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland, though some indications suggest the term may refer to a loose confederation of tribal groups.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.