Wangaaypuwan

The Wangaibon (also known as the Wangaaypuwan or Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan) are an Indigenous Australian people who traditionally lived between Nyngan, the headwaters of Bogan Creek and on Tigers Camp and Boggy Cowal creeks[1][2][3][4] and west to Ivanhoe, New South Wales.[5] They are a clan of the Ngiyampaa nation.

Wangaibon

Total population
possibly under 100 (less than 1% of the Australian population, less than 1% of the Aboriginal population)
Regions with significant populations
Australia (Queensland)
Languages
English, formerly Warrongo language and Gugu Badhun language
Religion
Aboriginal mythology

Ethnonym

The tribal ethnonym derives from their word for 'no', variously transcribed worjai,[5] wonghi[6] or wangaay.[7][8]

Language

They spoke a distinct dialect of Ngiyampaa. The last known speaker was a woman called 'Old Nanny', from whom a list of sixty words was collected. She died sometime around 1914.[9]

Like other Ngiyampaa people such as the Weilwan, they also referred to themselves according to their home country.[7][8]

Country

According to Norman Tindale, the Wangaibon's traditional lands extended over some 27,000 square miles (70,000 km²) of territory, taking in the headwaters of the Bogan River, the Tigers Camp and Boggy Cowal creeks. Their area encompassed Trida, Narromine, Nyngan, Girilambone, Cobar, and Gilgunnia. The western boundary lay around Ivanhoe and near the Neckarboo Range. Their southern borders ran to Trundle. When severe drought struck they were known to venture into Wiradjuri land, to their west,[10] on the Lachlan River and Little Billabong Creek.[5]

Social organization

According to an early observer, A. L. P. Cameron, the Wangaibon's social divisions were as follows:[11]

classes	Totems
Ipai	wagun (crow)
Kumbu	murua (kangaroo)
Murri	tali (iguana)
Kubbi	kuru (bandicoot); kurakai (opossum)

The Wangaibon intermarried with the Wiradjuri, and the marriage pattern, again according to Cameron, was as follows:[12]

Male	Marries	Children are
(M) Ipai	(F) Matha	Kubbi/Kubbitha
(M) Kumbu	(F) Kubbitha	Murri/Matha.
(M) Murri	(F) Ipatha	Kumbu/Butha.
(M) Kubbi	(F) Butha	Ipai/Ipatha.

Cameron elsewhere[13] states that Ipatha, Butha, Matha and Kubbitha were the famel equivalents of Ipai, Kumbu, Murri and Kubbi.

There were five grades classified for the ages of man: a boy was eramurrung; bimbadjeri during the initiatory months; then bigumjeri. On reaching middle age, he became gibera and in old age giribung.:[14]

Lore

According to a Wangaibon story, the emu once had enormous wings, and, flying high, grew curious at the sight of numerous birds engaged in fishing in a lake. On its descent, the other species flew off in alarm, save for the brolga or native companion. The emu inquired about how it might learn the craft of fishing, and the brolga, with treacherous mischief in mind, told it that in order to trawl up fish, it would have to have its immense wings removed which, on the emu consenting, the native companion set about doing, and, once the shearing was completed, scorned the emu, which was now deprived of flight. On meeting up again after many years, it turned out the emu had a brood of ten chicks, while the brolga had only one. The brolga apologized for her bad behaviour and was forgiven. But, unable to change her malicious ways, she jumped at the excuse provided by the emu's admission it was hard to feed her nurslings, by suggesting they eat them. Once more the emu was inveigled into accepting the brolga's advice, only, once the latter had gorged itself, to be cajoled for its stupidity in having its young killed. On a third occasion, the brolga, seeing the emu on a brood of 10 eggs, tried to get them, but was fended off as the emu rushed off the nest and charged the native companion. It in turn, leapt at the opportunity to smash the eggs by dropping down from the sky. Only one remained intact. The outraged emu, finding nothing to throw at her antagonist, took this last egg and launched it after the brolga as it flew high into the sky. It hit its target, and, as it broke, formed the sun.[10]

Alternative names and spellings

• Mudall[5]
• Wongai-bun
• Wonghi
• Wonghibon[15]
• Wonghibone
• Wonghibone
• Wongi-bone
• Wo'yaibun. (typo)[16]
• Wungai
• Wuzai/Wozai. (z = substitute for the ng ( ŋ) symbol by Ridley)[17]

Some words

• babena. (father)
• boobi. (baby)
• bulgari.(boomerang).[17]
• gunene (mother)
• meri (tame dog)[lower-alpha 1]
• walmera. (medicine man):[19]
• womboi. (kangaroo)[20]

Notes

1. The source from the Bench of Magistrates, Obley, gives murria. The toponym Merrigal meant a place where many dingos gathered.[18] (Cameron 1899, p. 195)

Citations

1. Countries and their Cultures.
2. Cameron 1885, pp. 345–346.
3. Woods 1879.
4. Balfe 1887, pp. 380–381.
5. Tindale 1974, p. 201.
6. Cameron 1885, p. 346.
7. Office of Environment & Heritage 2011.
8. Smart, Creaser & Monaghan 2000.
9. Donaldson 1984, p. 28. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDonaldson1984 (help)
10. Cameron 1903, p. 47.
11. Cameron 1885, p. 348.
12. Cameron 1885, p. 350.
13. Cameron 1902b, p. 176.
14. Cameron 1885, p. 360, n.1.
15. Cameron 1885, p. 345.
16. Ridley 1873, p. 259.
17. Ridley 1873, p. 260.
18. Magistrates 1887, p. 382.
19. Cameron 1885, p. 360.
20. Balfe 1887, p. 380.

Sources

• Balfe, J. (1887). "Bogan River" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Volume 3. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 380–381.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cameron, A. L. P. (1885). "Notes on some tribes of New South Wales". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 14: 344–370.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cameron, A. L. P. (21 November 1899). "Aboriginal names of places". Science of Man. 2 (10): 195.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cameron, A. L. P. (23 April 1900). "Aboriginal words with meanings used by the Wonjhibon tribe". Science of Man. 3 (3): 46–47.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cameron, A. L. P. (23 June 1902a). "Marriage law as practiced by the Wonghibone tribe". Science of Man. 5 (5): 83–84.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cameron, A. L. P. (27 December 1902b). "Marriage laws of the aboriginal tribes of N.S.W." Science of Man. 5 (11): 176–179.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Cameron, A. L. P. (22 April 1903). "Traditions and folklore of the aborigines of New South Wales". Science of Man. 6 (3): 46–48.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• "Cobar Peneplain - regional history Aboriginal occupation". Office of Environment & Heritage, NSW Government. 2011.
• Magistrates (1887). "Sources of Bogan River" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Volume 3. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 382–383.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Ridley, William (1873). "Report on Australian languages and traditions". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 2: 257–291. doi:10.2307/2841174. JSTOR 2841174.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Ridley, William (1875). Kámilarói, and other Australian languages (PDF). Sydney: T. Richards, government printer.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Smart, J.; Creaser, P.; Monaghan, D. (2000). Linking Conservation Assessment and Aboriginal Ecological Knowledge on the Cobar Peneplain. NPWS.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Wongaibon (NSW)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• "Wangaibon". Countries and their Cultures.
• Woods, J. D. (1879). The Native Tribes of South Australia. Adelaide: E. S. Wigg & Son.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)