Wongkanguru

The Wongkanguru, alternatively written Wangkanguru, are an indigenous Australian people of the state of South Australia. The Wongkanguru language is Pama-Nyungan. Their descendants now form an aggregate with the Yarluyandi and are represented by the Wangkangurru Yarluyandi Aboriginal Corporation. Their native title was recognized in 2014.

Country

Norman Tindale estimated their tribal sway as extending over 14,000 square miles (36,000 km²), taking in the area from Stevenson Creek northwards to Mount Dare. To the east they were at Macumba Creek. The Wongkanguru were also present on the lower reaches of the Finke River. The southern section of the Arunta (Simpson) Desert also formed part of their territory, while to the southeast, their boundaries ran as far as Kallakoopah Creek and the Warburton River. Blood Creek and Atna Hill also lay on Wongkanguru lands.[1]

Notable people

• Mick McLean (Irinyili) b.1888-d.1977) was an outstanding 'man of high degree' (minpari), whose erudition regarding the country, languages and culture of northern South Australia - the traditional song cycles and lore extending from the Simpson Desert and Dalhousie in the north to Port Augusta and Murnpeowie in the south, from the westernly Indulkana eastwards as far as Innamincka was highly prized by ethnographers such as Luise Hercus. Aside from English, he was fluent in five Aboriginal languages, a master of Wangkangurru, Arabana and the southern variety of Arrernte, as well as exhibiting a competency in both Diyari and Antakarinya.[2]

Some words

• minparu. (Man of high degree/clever man/medicine man)[3]

Alternative names

• Wangkanguru. (Yankuntjatjarra pronunciation)
• Wongkongaru,Wonkanguru, Wonkonguru
• Ongkongura
• Wongkaooroo,Wonkgongaru, Wonkongaru, Wonkaoora
• Wongonooroo,[4] Wonkongnuru,[lower-alpha 1] Wonkagnurra, Wonkanooroo.
• Unganoora
• Känguru. (abbreviation)
• Gongaru
• Partama. (Gugadja exonym)
• Wingkungira. (Iliaura exonym).[1]

Notes

1. "Another recorder who had possible hearing defects, or lapses in transcription techniques, was R. Helms (1895).In his account of the aborigines encountered during the Elder Exploring Expedition, he heard [ij] as [gn] and was seemingly tone deaf to initial [n] and [nj] sounds. Thus he gave Yunga for Njunga, Wonkongnuru for Wongkanguru, .."[5] (Tindale 1974, p. 154)

Citations

1. Tindale 1974, p. 219.
2. McCaul 2016, p. 347.
3. McCaul 2016, p. 244.
4. Pauli 1886, p. 18.
5. Helms 1895.

Sources

• "AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia". AIATSIS.
• Eylmann, Erhard (1908). Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien (PDF). Berlin: D.Reimer.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Gason, Samuel (1879) [First published 1874]. "The Dieyerie tribe of Australian Aborigines". In Woods, J. D. (ed.). Native Tribes of South Australia. Adelaide: E. S. Wigg & Son. pp. 253–307.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Helms, Richard (1895). "Anthropology of the Elder Exploring Expedition. 1871-1872". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. Adelaide. 16: 237–332.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Horne, G. A.; Aiston, G. (1924). Savage life in Central Australia (PDF). London: Macmillan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Howitt, Alfred William (1904). The native tribes of south-east Australia (PDF). Macmillan.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Howitt, Alfred William; Siebert, Otto (January–June 1904). "Legends of the Dieri and Kindred Tribes of Central Australia". Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Adelaide. 34: 100–129. JSTOR 2843089.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Mathews, R. H. (January 1900a). "Divisions of the South Australian Aborigines". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 39 (161): 78–91+93. JSTOR 983545.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Mathews, R. H. (October–December 1900b). "Phallic Rites and Initiation Ceremonies of the South Australian Aborigines". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 39 (164): 622–638. JSTOR 983778.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• McCaul, Kim (2016). "The making of a Simpson Desert clever man" (PDF). In Austin, Peter K.; Koch, Harold; Simpson, Jane (eds.). Language, Land and Song. London: EL Publishing. pp. 344–357.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Pauli, W. J. (1886). "Warburton 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 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 18–21.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Spencer, Sir Baldwin; Gillen, Francis J. (1904). Northern Tribes of Central Australia (PDF). Macmillan Publishers.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Strehlow, Carl (1910). Die Aranda- und Loritja-stämme in Zentral-Australien (PDF) (in German). Volume 3. Frankfurt am Main: Städtisches Völker-Museum.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Wongkanguru (SA)". 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)
• Yallop, C. L. (1969). "The Aljawara and Their Territory". Oceania. 39 (3): 187–197. JSTOR 40329775.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)