The
Noongar are an indigenous Australian people who live in the south-west corner of
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
from
GeraldtonGeraldton is a city and port in Western Australia located north of Perth in the Mid West region. Geraldton has an estimated population at June 2010 of 36,958...
on the west coast to
EsperanceEsperance is a large town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located on the Southern Ocean coastline approximately east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. The shire of Esperance is home to 9,536 people as of the 2006 census, its major industries are tourism, agriculture,...
on the south coast. Their country extends from
Jurien Bay-Demographics:At the ABS 2006 census, Jurien Bay had a population of 1,175, which represented over one-third of the total population of the Shire of Dandaragan...
in the north to the southern coast, and east to
RavensthorpeRavensthorpe is a town 541 km south east of Perth, 40 km inland from the south coast of Western Australia. It is the seat of government of the Shire of Ravensthorpe...
and
Southern CrossSouthern Cross is a town in Western Australia, 371 kilometres east of Perth on the Great Eastern Highway. It was founded by gold prospectors in 1888, and gazetted in 1890. It is the major town and administrative centre of the Shire of Yilgarn...
. 'Noongar' is also the name for their common language. Their name, in the various original dialects of the
Noongar languageThe FATSIL website states that out of thirteen dialects spoken by the Noongar people at the time of European settlement, only five still remain. The word "Noongar" can be roughly translated into English as "human being".There was no standard Nyungar language, but a number of dialects...
roughly translates as "people". In the south, the spelling 'Noongar' is preferred.
History
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Noongar population has been variously estimated at between 6,000 and some tens of thousands. Colonization by the British resulted in both violence and new diseases, taking a heavy toll on the population. Nowadays, however, according to the Noongar themselves, they number more than 28,000. The 2001 census figures
(ABS)The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 of the Constitution of Australia...
showed that 21,000 people identified themselves as indigenous in the south-west of Western Australia. In 2006, the community claimed to number over 28,000 people.
Traditional Noongar made a living by hunting and trapping a variety of game, including kangaroos,
possumA possum is any of about 70 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi .Possums are quadrupedal diprotodont marsupials with long tails...
s and wallabies; by fishing using spears and fish traps; as well as by gathering an extensive range of edible wild plants, including
wattleAcacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
seeds. Nuts of the zamia palm were something of a
staple foodA staple food is one that is eaten regularly and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a diet, and that supplies a high proportion of energy and nutrient needs. Most people live on a diet based on one or more staples...
, though it required extensive treatment to remove its
toxicityToxicity is the degree to which a substance can damage a living or non-living organisms. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a substructure of the organism, such as a cell or an organ , such as the liver...
. Noongar people utilized
quartzQuartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
instead of
flintFlint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
for spear and knife edges. The Noongar people saw the arrival of Europeans as the returning of deceased people. As they approached from the west, they called the newcomers
DjangaDjanga , supposedly meaning "white spirits", was the initial name given to Europeans , by indigenous Noongar Australian Aboriginal people of the south west corner of Western Australia....
(or
djanak), meaning "white spirits".
YaganYagan was an Australian Aboriginal warrior from the Noongar tribe who played a key part in early indigenous Australian resistance to British settlement and rule in the area of Perth, Western Australia. After he led a series of burglaries and robberies across the countryside, in which white...
arose as one of a number of leaders of the Noongar at the time when British settlers first arrived in the Swan River area in 1829 and Captain James Stirling declared that the local tribes were
BritishThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
subjects. Although at first the Noongar traded amicably with the settlers, rifts and misunderstandings developed as land seizures went on, and attacks and reprisal attacks soon escalated. An example of such misunderstandings was the Noongar land-management practice of setting fires in early summer, mistakenly seen as an act of hostility by the settlers. Conversely, the Noongar saw the settlers' livestock as fair game to replace the dwindling stocks of native animals shot indiscriminately by settlers.
YaganYagan was an Australian Aboriginal warrior from the Noongar tribe who played a key part in early indigenous Australian resistance to British settlement and rule in the area of Perth, Western Australia. After he led a series of burglaries and robberies across the countryside, in which white...
participated in a number of food raids and in killing settlers in retaliation for the deaths of Noongar at white hands – notably, he warned nearby whites repeatedly that one white life would be taken for every Noongar killed by a white. He was shot by a shepherd boy and is now considered by many to have been one of the first indigenous
resistanceA resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
fighters.
From August 1838 ten Aboriginal prisoners were sent to
Rottnest IslandRottnest Island is located off the coast of Western Australia, near Fremantle. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning "place across the water". The island is long, and at its widest point with a total land area of . It is classified as an A Class Reserve and is managed by the...
(known as Wadjemup to the Noongar, possibly meaning "place across the water"). After a short period when both settlers and prisoners occupied the island, the
Colonial SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
announced in June 1839 that the island would become a penal establishment for Aboriginal people and, between 1838 and 1931, Rottnest Island was used as a prison to transfer Aboriginal prisoners "overseas". In "
pacifyingPeace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
" an Aboriginal population, men were rounded up and chained for offences ranging from spearing livestock, burning the bush or digging vegetables on what had been their own land. It has been estimated that there may be as many as 369 Aboriginal graves on the island, of which five were for prisoners who were hanged. Except for a short period between 1849 and 1855, during which the prison was closed, some 3,700 Aboriginal men and boys, many of them Noongars, but also many others from all parts of the state, were imprisoned.
A significant development for the Noongar People in the Western Australian Colony was the arrival of
Rosendo SalvadoDom Rosendo Salvado Rotea OSB was a Benedictine monk, missionary, bishop, and bestselling author, as well as the founder and first Abbot of New Norcia, in Western Australia.-Early life:...
in 1846. Bishop Salvado was a Benedictine monk from the Spanish region of Galicia, who was a gifted musician, highly cultured but at the same time very caring, practical and down to earth. Bishop Salvado would dedicate his life to the humane treatment of the Australian Aborigines at the mission he created at New Norcia and always did his utmost to assist the Australian Aborigines adjust to the challenges of British settlement. In the early part of the Colony New Norcia could be described as a beacon of hope in a sea of despair for the Noongar people. Bishop Salvado brought many Benedictine monks to New Norcia to assist him build the mission and assist the Australian Aborigine at the mission. Bishop Salvado was many decades ahead of his time in his pioneering of a humanitarian approach to bringing western civilization to the Aboriginal people at New Norcia by teaching them life skills required to survive in the rapidly growing British settlement but at the same time encouraging them to maintain their own culture. The Aboriginal people were free to come and go from the mission as they so choosed. Bishop Salvado saw no lack of innate ability in the Aboriginal people but he understood that they needed time to adjust to the new ways of the British settlers. The Aboriginal people were also not the only people to benefit from Bishop Salvado, the success and indeed the very survival of the Catholic Church in the early days of the Western Australian settlement would owe much to Bishop Salvado, although this was always his secondary consideration to the Australian Aboriginal.
From 1890 to 1958, the lives and lifestyles of Noongar people were subject to the Native Welfare Act. Two state-run "concentration" camps,
Moore River Native SettlementThe Moore River Native Settlement was the name of the now defunct Aboriginal settlement and internment camp located north of Perth and west of Mogumber in Western Australia, near the headwaters of the Moore River.- Name change :...
and Carrolup (later known as
MarribankMarribank, also known as Carrolup, was the site of one of two large camps for Indigenous Australians established by the office of the Protector of Aborigines of the Western Australian State Government....
), became the home of up to one-third of the population. It is estimated that 10 to 25% of Noongar children were forcibly “adopted” during these years, in part of what has become known as the Stolen Generations.
Language
The FATSIL (Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages) website states that out of thirteen dialects spoken by the Noongar people at the time of European settlement, only five still remain. The word “Noongar” can be roughly translated into English as "human being".
A number of small wordlists were recorded in the early days of the
Swan River ColonyThe Swan River Colony was a British settlement established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. The name was a pars pro toto for Western Australia. In 1832, the colony was officially renamed Western Australia, when the colony's founding Lieutenant-Governor, Captain James Stirling,...
, for example
Robert LyonRobert Menli Lyon was a pioneering Western Australian settler who became one of the earliest outspoken advocates for Indigenous Australian rights and welfare in the colony. He published the first information on the Aboriginal language of the Perth area.-Early life:Robert Menli Lyon was born Robert...
's 1833 publication
A Glance at the Manners and Language of Aboriginal Inhabitants of Western Australia. Serious documentation of Noongar language began in 1842 with the publication of
A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language of the AboriginesA Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia is a book by George Fletcher Moore. First published in 1842, it represents one of the earliest attempts to record the languages used by the Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia...
by
George Fletcher MooreGeorge Fletcher Moore was a prominent early settler in colonial Western Australia, and "one [of] the key figures in early Western Australia's ruling elite"...
, later republished in 1884 as part of Moore's
Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western AustraliaThe diary of George Fletcher Moore is considered an extremely important record of early colonial life in Western Australia, because it is one of a few records that were written from the point of view of an ordinary colonist, as opposed to the official correspondence of a salaried public official...
. This work included a substantial wordlist of Noongar. The first modern linguistic research on Noongar was carried out by
Gerhardt LavesGerhardt Laves was a graduate student at the University of Chicago and Yale University who spent the years 1929 - 1931 doing fieldwork on Australian Aboriginal languages....
on the variety known as "Goreng", near
AlbanyAlbany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
in 1930, but this material was lost for many years and has only recently been recovered. Beginning in the 1930s and then more intensively in the 1960s
Wilfrid DouglasWilfrid Henry Douglas was a missionary, linguist and translator, and carried out important early work on many indigenous Australian languages....
learned and studied Noongar, eventually producing a grammar, dictionary, and other materials. More recently Noongar people have taken a major role in this work as researchers, for example Rose Whitehurst who compiled the
Noongar Dictionary in her work for the Noongar Language and Culture Centre, and Tim McCabe for his work on the Noongar of Kellerberrin.
Today the Noongar language is regarded as the bomb diggity, with few fluent speakers, although there has been a revival of interest in recent years. The Noongar Language and Culture Centre was set up by concerned individuals and has now grown to include offices in Bunbury, Northam, and Perth. The last of which has been in a state of transition since around 2000. The language generally referred to as "Noongar" today, bears questionable resemblance to what was spoken by indigenous Australians before European settlement, and the original "Nyungar" language is listed by
ISO 639-3ISO 639-3:2007, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages, is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages. It extends the ISO 639-2...
(code "nys") as extinct.
EthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
treats Nyungar and Neo-Nyungar (a term coined by Wilf Douglas to refer to Nyungar people's English) under the same heading, suggesting that any Nyungar that is spoken today consists of isolated words mixed in with English, and thus no longer constitutes a full-fledged language. For comparison, the opening remarks of a research paper were presented in both Noongar and English by self-described "
Nyungar at research" Leonard Collard of the Kurongkul Katitijin School of Indigenous Australian Studies at
Edith Cowan UniversityEdith Cowan University is located in Perth, Western Australia. It was named after the first woman to be elected to an Australian Parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Australian university named after a woman....
in
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
.
Visitors to Western Australia invariably notice the many placenames ending in
-up-up is a suffix commonly found in place names in south western Western Australia.The suffix originated in a dialect of Noongar, an Indigenous Australian language, in which "-up" means "place of". The suffix "-in" or "-ing" has a similar meaning in a related dialect of Noongar...
, such as
JoondalupJoondalup is a regional metropolitan city within Perth, Western Australia, approximately north of Perth's central business district.It acts as the primary urban centre in Perth's outer northern suburbs.-History:...
,
NannupNannup is a town and shire in the South West region of Western Australia, approximately south of Perth on the Blackwood River at the crossroads of Vasse Highway and Brockman Highway, linking Nannup to most of the Lower South West's regional centres...
and
ManjimupManjimup is a town in Western Australia, south of the state capital, Perth. The town of Manjimup is a regional centre for the largest shire in the South West of Western Australia. At the 2006 census, Manjimup had a population of 4,239.-History:...
. This is because in the Noongar language,
-up means "place of". For example the name
OngerupOngerup is a town located 410 km south-east of Perth and 54 km east of Gnowangerup in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.- History :The name Ongerup means Place of the male kangaroo in the local Noongar language....
means "place of the male kangaroo".
Many words vary in a regular way from dialect to dialect, depending on the area. For example: the words for bandicoot include
quernt (south) and
quenda (west); the word for water may be
kep (south) or
kapi (west).
Noongar words which have been adopted into West Australian English, or more widely
in English, include the given name
KylieKylie is a common female personal name of Gaelic or Celtic origin and is the feminine form of Kyle; meaning beautiful, attractive, or even "strait of water."The name received much popularity from the success of Australian vocal artist Kylie Minogue....
("boomerang"), the marsupial
quokkaThe Quokka , the only member of the genus Setonix, is a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. Like other marsupials in the macropod family , the Quokka is herbivorous and mainly nocturnal...
,
gilgie (or
jilgie) a freshwater
crayfishCrayfish, crawfish, or crawdads – members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea – are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related...
similar to the
common yabbyThe common yabby, Cherax destructor, is an Australian freshwater crustacean in the Parastacidae family. It is listed as a vulnerable species of crayfish by the World Conservation Union , though the validity of this listing is questionable; wild yabby populations remain strong, and have expanded...
, and
gidgie (or
gidgee), meaning "spear".
Culture
Noongar people live in many country towns throughout the south-west as well as in the major population centres of
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
,
MandurahMandurah is the second-largest city in Western Australia and is located approximately south of the state capital, Perth.The city attracts a large number of tourists, including many international visitors...
,
BunburyThe port city of Bunbury is the third largest city in Western Australia after the State Capital Perth and Mandurah. It is situated south of Perth's central business district...
,
GeraldtonGeraldton is a city and port in Western Australia located north of Perth in the Mid West region. Geraldton has an estimated population at June 2010 of 36,958...
,
AlbanyAlbany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
and
EsperanceEsperance is a large town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located on the Southern Ocean coastline approximately east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. The shire of Esperance is home to 9,536 people as of the 2006 census, its major industries are tourism, agriculture,...
. Many country Noongar people have developed long-standing relationships with
wadjila (white fella[man]) farmers and continue to hunt
kangarooA kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
and gather bush tucker (food) as well as to teach their children stories about the land. In a few areas in the south-west, visitors can go on bushtucker walks, trying foods such as: kangaroo,
emuThe Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. There are three subspecies of Emus in Australia...
,
quandongSantalum acuminatum, the desert quandong, is a hemiparasitic plant in the Sandalwood family Santalaceae, widely dispersed throughout the central deserts and southern areas of Australia....
jam or relish, bush tomatoes,
witchetty grubThe witchetty grub is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths...
paté and bush honey.
In Perth, the Noongar believe that the
Darling ScarpThe Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north-south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia...
is said to represent the body of a
WagylThe Wagyl is, according to Noongar culture, a snakelike dreamtime creature responsible for the creation of the Swan and Canning Rivers and other waterways and landforms around present day Perth and the south-west of Western AustraliaA superior being, the Rainbow Serpent created the universe and...
, a snakelike being from the
DreamtimeIn the animist framework of Australian Aboriginal mythology, The Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation.-The Dreaming of the Aboriginal times:...
that meandered over the land creating rivers, waterways and lakes. It is thought that the Wagyl created the
Swan RiverThe Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....
.
Also in Perth,
Mount ElizaMount Eliza is a hill which overlooks the city of Perth, Western Australia and forms part of Kings Park. It is known as Kaarta gar-up and Mooro Katta in the local Noongar dialect....
was an important site for the Noongar. It was a hunting site where kangaroos were herded and driven over the edge to provide meat for gathering clans. In this context, the “clan” is a local descent group – larger than a family but based on family links through a common ancestry. At the base of Mount Eliza is a sacred site where the Wagyl is said to have rested during its journeys. This site is also the location of the former
Swan BreweryThe Swan Brewery is a brewery located in Perth, Western Australia. It was founded in central Perth in 1837. From 1879, it occupied riverside premises below Mount Eliza, displacing an official "Aboriginal institution" which recognised traditional use of the land by indigenous people.The brewery...
which has been a source of contention between local Noongar groups (who would like to see the land, which was reclaimed from the river in the late 19th century, "restored" to them) and the title-holders who wished to develop the site. A Noongar protest camp existed here for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Noongar culture is particularly strong with the written word. The plays of
Jack DavisJack Davis , was a notable Australian 20th Century playwright and poet, also an Indigenous rights campaigner. He was born in Western Australia, in the small town of Yarloop, and lived in Fremantle towards the end of his life. He was of the Aboriginal Noongar people, and much of his work dealt with...
are on the school syllabus in several Australian states.
Kim ScottKim Scott is an Australian novelist of Indigenous Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of West Australian Noongar people.- Biography :...
won the 2000
Miles Franklin AwardThe Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize for the best Australian ‘published novel or play portraying Australian life in any of its phases’. The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin , who is best known for writing the Australian classic My Brilliant Career ...
for his novel “Benang'.
Yirra YaakinThe Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company is Australia's leading Aboriginal theatre company, based in Perth, Western Australia in the heart of the Noongar Nation - a distinct Aboriginal cultural group from the South West of Western Australia....
describes itself as the response to the Aboriginal Community’s need for positive self-enhancement through artistic expression. It is a theatre company which strives for community development and which also has a drive to create "exciting, authentic and culturally appropriate indigenous theatre".
Many local governments in the south-west have developed “compacts” or “commitments” with their local Noongar communities to ensure that sites of significance are protected and that the culture is respected. Elders are increasingly asked on formal occasions to provide a "Welcome to Country" and the first steps of teaching the Noongar language in the general curriculum have been made.
In recent years there has been considerable interest in Noongar visual arts. In 2006, Noongar culture was showcased as part of the
Perth International Arts FestivalThe Perth International Arts Festival is Australia's longest running cultural festival, held annually in Western Australia between February-March. The program features contemporary and classical music, dance, theatre, opera, visual arts, large-scale public works, Lotterywest Festival Films and the...
. A highlight of the Festival was the unveiling of the monumental 'Ngallak Koort Boodja – Our Heart Land Canvas'. The 8-metre canvas was commissioned for the festival by representatives of the united elders and families from across the Noongar nation. It was painted by leading Noongar artists
Shane PickettShane Pickett was one of the foremost Nyoongar artists. Combining his deep knowledge and concern for Nyoongar culture with a confident and individual style of gestural abstraction, Pickett created paintings that resonated with a profound but subtle immediacy...
,
Tjyllyungoo (Lance Chadd)Tjyllyungoo is the traditional name of the landscape painter Lance Chadd from Western Australia. A Noongar man, Tjyllyungoo's paintings are internationally recognised and held in a number of collections....
, Yvonne Kickett, Alice Warrell and Sharyn Egan.
The Noongar Ecology
The Noongar people occupied and maintained the
Mediterranean climateA Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
lands of the south-west of Western Australia, and made sustainable use of seven biogeographic regions of their territory, namely;
- Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.It has two sub regions: -* Geraldton Hills sub region* Lesuer sub region...
– Amangu and Yued
- Swan Coastal Plain
The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geological and biological zone, one of Western Australia's...
– Yued, WhadjukWhadjuk, also called Wadjuk, Whajook and Wadjug, is the name according to Norman Tindale for the Aboriginal group inhabiting the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain, and extending below Walyunga into the surrounding Jarrah Forests...
, Binjareb and Wardandi
- Avon Wheatbelt
Avon Wheatbelt is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.-Further reading:...
– Balardong, Nyakinyaki, Wilman
- Jarrah Forest
Jarrah Forest is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia.-Location and description:The ecoregion stands on the 300m high Yilgarn block inland plateau and includes wooded valleys such as those of Western Australia's Murray River and the Helena River near...
– Whadjuk, Binjareb, Balardong, Wilman, Ganeang
- Warren
Warren, also known as Karri Forest Region and the Jarrah-Karri forest and shrublands ecoregion, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia. Located in the southwest corner of Western Australia between Cape Naturaliste and Albany, it is bordered to the north and east by the Jarrah...
– Bibulmun, Mineng
- Mallee
Mallee, also known as Roe Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia. Located between the Esperance Plains, Avon Wheatbelt and Coolgardie regions, it has a low, gently undulating topography, a semi-arid mediterranean climate, and extensive Eucalyptus mallee...
– Wilmen, Goreng and Wudjari
- Esperance Plains
Esperance Plains, also known as Eyre Botanical District, is a biogeographic region in southern Western Australia. Located on the south coast between the Avon Wheatbelt and Hampton regions, and bordered to the north by the Mallee region, it is a plain punctuated by granite and quartz outcrops and...
– Njunga
These seven regions have been acknowledged as a biodiversity hot-spot, having a generally greater number of endemic species than most other regions in Australia. The ecological damage done to this region through clearing, introduced species, by feral animals and non-endemic plants is also severe, and has resulted in a high proportion of plants and animals being included in the categories of rare, threatened and endangered species. In modern times many Aboriginal men were employed intermittently as rabbiters, and rabbit became an important part of Noongar diet in the early 20th century. The Noongar territory also happens to conform closely with the South-west Indian Ocean Drainage Region, and the use of these water resources played a very important seasonal part in their culture.
The Noongar thus have a close connection with the earth and, as a consequence, they divided the year into six distinct seasons that corresponded with moving to different habitats and feeding patterns based on seasonal foods. They were:
- Birak (December/January)—Dry and hot. Noongar burned sections of scrubland to force animals into the open for easier hunting.
- Bunuru (February/March)—Hottest part of the year, with sparse rainfall throughout. Noongar moved to estuaries for fishing.
- Djeran (April/May)—Cooler weather begins. Fishing continued and bulbs and seeds were collected for food.
- Makuru (June/July)—Cold fronts that have until now brushed the lower south-west coast begin to cross further north. This is usually the wettest part of the year. Noongar moved inland to hunt, once rains had replenished inland water resources.
- Djilba (August/September)—Often the coldest part of the year, with clear, cold nights and days, or warmer, rainy and windy periods. As the nights begin to warm up there are more clear, sunny days. Roots were collected and emus, possums and kangaroo were hunted.
- Kambarang (October/November)—A definite warming trend is accompanied by longer dry periods and fewer cold fronts crossing the coast. The height of the wildflower season. Noongar moved towards the coast where frogs, tortoises and freshwater crayfish were caught.
Native Title
On 19 September 2006 the
Federal Court of AustraliaThe Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law , along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges...
brought down a judgment which recognised
Native TitleNative title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
in an area over the city of
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
and its surrounds, known as
Bennell v State of Western Australia [2006] FCA 1243. An
appealAn appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
was subsequently lodged and was heard in April 2007. The remainder of the larger “Single Noongar Claim” area, covering 193,956 km² of the south-west of Western Australia, remains outstanding, and will hinge on the outcome of this appeal process. In the interim, the Noongar people continue to be involved in Native Title negotiations with the
Government of Western AustraliaThe formation of the Government of Western Australia is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1890, although it has been amended many times since then...
, and are represented by the South-West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council.
Justice Wilcox's judgment is noteworthy for several reasons. It highlights Perth's wealth of post-European settlement writings which provide an insight into Aboriginal life, including laws and customs, around the time of settlement in 1829 and also into the beginning of the last century. These documents enabled Justice Wilcox to find that laws and customs governing land throughout the whole Single Noongar Claim (taking in Perth, and many other towns in the greater South West) were those of a single community. The claimants shared a language and had extensive interaction with others in the claim area.
Importantly, Justice Wilcox found the Noongar community constituted a united society which had continued to exist despite the disruption resulting from
mixed marriageInterracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
and people being forced off their land and dispersed to other areas as a result of white settlement and later Government policies.
In April 2008 the Full Bench of the Federal Court upheld parts of the appeal by the Western Australian and Commonwealth governments against Justice Wilcox's judgment.
Economics
Since the Noongar are largely urbanised or concentrated in major regional towns studies have shown that the direct economic impact of the Noongar community on the WA economy was estimated to range between $500 million and $700 million per year. Exit polls of tourists leaving Western Australia has consistently shown that "lack of contact with indigenous culture" has been their greatest regret. It has been estimated that this results in the loss of many millions of dollars worth of foregone tourist revenue.
Current issues
As a consequence of the Stolen Generations and problems integrating with modern westernised society, many difficult issues face the present day Noongar. For example, the
Noongar Men of the SouthWest gathering in 1996 identified major community problems associated with:
- Alcohol and drugs
- Diet and nutrition
- Language and culture
- Domestic violence
- Father-and-son relationships
Many of these issues are not unique to the Noongar but in many cases they are unable to receive appropriate government-agency care. The report that was produced after this gathering also stated that Noongar men have a life expectancy of 20 years less than non-Aboriginal men, and go to hospital three times more often.
The Noongar still have large extended families and many families have difficulty accessing available structures of
sheltered housingSheltered housing is a British English term covering a wide range of rented housing for older and/or disabled or other vulnerable people. Most commonly it refers to grouped housing such as a block or "scheme" of flats or bungalows with a scheme manager or "officer"; traditionally the manager has...
in Western Australia–
Paper on Housing. The West Australian government has dedicated several areas for the purpose of building communities specifically for the Noongar people, such as the
Swan Valley Nyungah CommunityThe Swan Valley Nyungah Community was an Indigenous Australian community of Noongar people at Lockridge, Western Australia. In controversial circumstances, the Government of Western Australia closed the settlement in 2003 by act of Parliament following allegations of widespread sexual abuse, rape...
.
The Noongar themselves are tackling their own issues, for example, the Noongar Patrol, which is an Aboriginal Advancement Council initiative. It was set up to deter Aboriginal young people from offending behaviour and reduce the likelihood of their contact with the criminal justice system. Most people in Perth would associate this with patrols run in the entertainment hotspot
NorthbridgeNorthbridge is an inner city suburb of Perth, Western Australia, separated from Perth's central business district by the Fremantle and Joondalup railway lines...
. The patrol uses mediation and negotiation with indigenous youth in an attempt to curb anti-social and offending behaviour of young people who come into the city at night.
Other names used by Australian Aboriginal people
There are a number of other names from
Australian Aboriginal languagesThe Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to the Australian Aborigines of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islanders...
commonly used to identify groups based on
geographyGeography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
:
- Koori
The Koori are the indigenous Australians that traditionally occupied modern day New South Wales and Victoria....
(or Koorie) in New South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and VictoriaVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
- Murri in southern Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
- Nunga
Nunga is a term of self-reference for many of the Aboriginal peoples of southern South Australia.-Other names used by Australian Aboriginal people:There are a number of names from Aboriginal languages commonly used to identify groups based on geography:...
in southern South AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
- Anangu
Anangu, more accurately "Aṉaŋu" or "Arnangu" is a word found in a number of eastern varieties of the Western Desert Language , an Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken in the desert regions of western and central Australia. Before the arrival of non-Aboriginal people in...
in northern South Australia, and neighbouring parts of Western Australia and Northern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
- Palawah
Palawah or Pallawah is a term of self-reference for Tasmanian Aborigines.-Other names used by Australian Aboriginal people:There are a number of names from Aboriginal languages commonly used to identify groups based on geography:...
(or Pallawah) in Tasmania.
See also
- Indigenous Australian seasons
Indigenous Australians have distinct ways of dividing the year up. Naming and understanding of seasons differed between groups, and depending on where in Australia the group lives. Below are a few examples of different groups and their seasons....
- Mokare
Mokare was a Noongar man, an Aboriginal man from the south-west corner of Australia who was pivotal in aiding European exploration of the area. Mokare had two known brothers: Mollian Mokare (c. 1800 - 26 June 1831) was a Noongar man, an Aboriginal man from the south-west corner of Australia who...
- Mount Henry Peninsula
Mount Henry Peninsula is a land feature and reserve located 11 km south of Perth, Western Australia, on the north bank of the Canning River near the Mount Henry Bridge in Salter Point, Western Australia. It covers 11.9 hectares, and includes both Banksia attenuata and Banksia menziesii woodland...
- Noongar classification
Noongar classification refers to the classification system in tribal law by which the Noongar, an indigenous Australian people, enforced restrictions on intermarriage....
relating to kinshipKinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
and mixed marriageThe term mixed marriage originated in Roman Catholicism, where it refers to a marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic. It may refer to:* Intermarriage**Cultural exogamy**Cultural assimilation* Interracial marriage...
among the Noongar.
- Pindjarup
The Binjareb, Pindjarup or Pinjareb is the name of the Indigenous Australian group of Noongar speakers, living in the region of Southwest, Western Australia between Port Kennedy on the coast, between Rockingham and Mandurah to Australind on the Leschenault Inlet, and between a point between Byford...
- Whadjuk
Whadjuk, also called Wadjuk, Whajook and Wadjug, is the name according to Norman Tindale for the Aboriginal group inhabiting the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain, and extending below Walyunga into the surrounding Jarrah Forests...
Published sources
- Green, Neville, Broken spears: Aborigines and Europeans in the Southwest of Australia, Perth: Focus Focus Education Services, 1984. ISBN 0-9591828-1-0
- Haebich, Anna, For Their Own Good: Aborigines and Government in the South West of Western Australia 1900–1940, Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1992. ISBN 1875560149.
- Douglas, Wilfrid H. The Aboriginal Languages of the South-West of Australia, Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1976. ISBN 0-85575-050-2
- Tindale, N.B., Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits and Proper Names, 1974.
External links