Ngadjunmaia

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The Ngadjunmaia are an indigenous Australian people of Western Australia.

Western Australia State in Australia

Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, and the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of 2,529,875 square kilometres, and the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. The state has about 2.6 million inhabitants – around 11 percent of the national total – of whom the vast majority live in the south-west corner, 79 per cent of the population living in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated.

Contents

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]

Cape Arid National Park Protected area in Western Australia

Cape Arid National Park is an Australian national park located in Western Australia, 731 kilometres (454 mi) southeast of Perth. The park is situated 120 kilometres (75 mi) east of Esperance and lies on shore from the eastern end of the Recherche Archipelago. The bay at its eastern side is Israelite Bay, a locality often mentioned in Bureau of Meteorology weather reports as a geographical marker. The western end is known as Duke of Orleans Bay.

The Wudjari were an indigenous Noongar people of the southern region of Western Australia.

Fraser Range Station

Fraser Range Station is a pastoral lease and sheep station located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of Norseman on the Eyre Highway in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.

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:-

Richard Helms (naturalist) New Zealander botanist (1842-1914)

Richard Helms was a German-born Australian naturalist whose work in botany, zoology, geology, and ethnology covered various parts of Australia and New Zealand. He arrived in Australia in 1858 and worked for a cousin in a Melbourne cigar shop. He travelled to Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1862 and in 1876 began practicing as a dentist in Nelson, New Zealand. He married in 1879 and opened a watchmaking business in Greymouth. The standard author abbreviation Helms is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

Polydactyly Physical anomaly

Polydactyly or polydactylism, also known as hyperdactyly, is a congenital physical anomaly in humans and animals resulting in supernumerary fingers and/or toes. Polydactyly is the opposite of oligodactyly.

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]

Norman Tindale Australian biologist

Norman Barnett Tindale AO was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist.

Alternative names

Wiilman

Wiilman are an indigenous Noongar people from the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and South West regions of Western Australia. Variant spellings of the name include Wilman, Wilmen and Wheelman. Wiilman is the endonym.

The Njunga or Nyunga were an indigenous Noongar people of Western Australia

The Kalaako (Kalarko) were an indigenous Australian people of the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.

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


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