The Uutaalnganu people, also known as Night Island Kawadji, [1] are an Aboriginal Australian group of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. [2] [3] The name is also used collectively for several peoples in this area, such as the Pontunj / Jangkonj (Yanganyu), whose language is unconfirmed. [4]
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 peoples, collectively known by the same ethnonym kawadji which means "people of the sandbeach" (pama malnkana). [2] [5] These groups, the Umpithamu/Koko Ompindamo, Pakadji, Yintyingka, Otati, Umpila and Pontunj [6] are 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]
The traditional Kawadji of Night Island were a small population and intermarried with clans of the mainland Barungguan. [8]
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]
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 for 17 years. [9]
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. [10] [8]
On 25 November 2021, 986 km2 (381 sq mi) of land on the eastern side of the Cape York Peninsula was handed back to the people, at the same time as 1,202 km2 (464 sq mi) was awarded to the Kuuku Ya'u peoples, in a native title claim that was lodged seven years prior. The landmark ruling was delivered by Justice Debra Mortimer of the Federal Court of Australia, sitting at the Supreme Court of Queensland in Cairns. [11] [12] [13]
The following alternative names refer to the original people of Night Island:
Names of other peoples also called 'Kawadji' -
The Mabuyag are an Indigenous Australian group of Torres Strait Islander people united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers and horticulturalists in family groups or clans living on and around Mabuiag Island, in Torres Strait in Queensland, Australia. They are ethnically Melanesian.
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.
Umpila, also known as Ompeila, Ompela, Oom-billa, or Koko-umpilo, is an Aboriginal Australian language, or dialect cluster, of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. It is spoken by about 100 Aboriginal people, many of them elderly.
Kaurareg is the name for one of the Indigenous Australian groups collectively known as Torres Strait Islander peoples, although many or most identify as Aboriginal Australians. They are the traditional owners of Thursday Island (Waiben) as well as a number of Torres Strait Islands.
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.
Bruce Rigsby was an American-Australian anthropologist specializing in the languages and ethnography of native peoples on both continents. He was professor emeritus at Queensland University, and a member of both the Australian Anthropological Society and the American Anthropological Association.
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.
The Pakadji people, also known by the southern tribal exonym as the Koko Yao, are an Aboriginal Australian group of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. The ethnonym Koko Yaʼo is said literally to mean " talk, speech" (koko/kuku) 'this way' (yaʼo), though this has been questioned.
The Olkolo or Koko-olkola' are an Indigenous Australian people of central and eastern Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. According to Norman Tindale, they are to be distinguished from the Kokangol, higher up on the Alice River watershed.
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 Lama Lama, also spelt Lamalama, are a contemporary Aboriginal Australian people of the eastern Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. The term was formerly used as one of the ethnonyms associated with a distinct tribe or clan group, the Bakanambia. They are today an aggregation of remnants of several former tribes or clan groups.
The Tjungundji or Tjongkandji are an Indigenous Australian people of central and western Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.
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 Pontunj, also called the Yankonyu, are a contemporary Indigenous Australian people of the eastern Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.
The Mutumui were an indigenous Australian people of northern Queensland.
The Walmbaria are an indigenous Australian people of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.
The Atjinuri were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland.
The Nggamadi were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland.
The Wuthathi, also known as the Mutjati, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. Anthropologist Norman Tindale distinguished the Mutjati from the Otati, whereas AIATSIS treats the two ethnonyms as variants related to the one ethnic group, the Wuthathi.