The Maduwongga are a purported Aboriginal Australian people of the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.
Martu Wangka has been used as an alternative name but this is now understood to have been incorrect.
Given the confusion over the 'Maduwongga', the language or dialect spoken by those whom Tindale denominated by the term is unclear. When assuming its existence, it is generally classified as a dialect of the Western Desert language. [1] According to Tindale, the language spoken by the Maduwongga was called "Kabal". [2] It has also erroneously been conflated with the Western Desert dialect of Martu Wangka. [1]
In Norman Tindale's estimation, there existed a Maduwongga tribal territory extended over some 9,000 square miles (23,000 km2), ranging westwards from Pinjin on Lake Rebecca as far as Mulline, including the area a few miles south of Menzies, where their borders with the Ngurlu ran, [3] over to Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie, Kanowna, Kurnalpi, and Siberia. [2] Ecologically the group lived in country marked by mallee eucalypt species. [4]
However, Tindale's description of this group and country has not stood close examination. Tindale's informant in 1939 was probably referring to the name for the dialect she spoke and not to a distinct 'tribe'. [a] The case may be a further example of what Paul Bunrke calls 'cartographic ethnogenesis' [6] [5] and the use of the name 'Maduwongga' to describe a 'tribe' or other society only entered into common currency in 1994, shortly after the passage of the Native Title Act. [5]
According to Tindale's records of oral traditions, the people he referred to as the Maduwongga may have moved in from an original homeland further east, and displaced the Kalamaia, westwards beyond Bullabulling. [2]