Gagudju
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The Gaagudju, also known as the Kakadu, are an
Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
people of the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
. There are four clans, being the Bunitj or Bunidj, the Djindibi, and two Mirarr clans. Three languages are spoken among the Mirarr or Mirrar clan: the majority speak Kundjeyhmi, while others speak Gaagudju and others another language.


Name and language

Gaagudju is a language spoken by a primary group known by that name, and a secondary group of contiguous peoples who used it as a second language, such as the Amurdak, Kundjeyhmi, Giimiyu, Bininj and Umbugarla peoples. Many of the latter ceased to speak their mother tongue in preference for Gaagudju after the 1930s, and it became in turn their first language.


Country

The Gaagudju were a people of the northern Kakadu area. Baldwin Spencer identified the area around
Gunbalanya Gunbalanya (also spelt Kunbarlanja, and historically referred to as Oenpelli) is an Aboriginal Australian town in west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, about east of Darwin. The main language spoken in the community is Kunwi ...
(at the time called Oenpelli) as Gaagudju territory, for they happened to be the dominant group there at the time. In
Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. Life Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...
's estimate, the Gaagudju possessed estates covering inland of the
Van Diemen Gulf Van Diemen Gulf is a gulf in the Northern Territory of Australia. It connects to the Timor Sea in the north via Dundas Strait. Most of its area is also gazetted as a locality with the name Van Diemen Gulf. History The gulf was named after the ...
some between the eastern and southern Alligator Rivers, and running southwards as far as the mountain country. They were resident at both Cannon Hill and Mount Basedow.


Social organisation

The Gaagudju were divided into four estate-owning clans, the Bunidj, the Djindibi (around Munmalarri), and two Mirarr clans. Three languages are spoken among the Mirrar or Mirarr clan group apart from English. The majority speak Kundjeyhmi.


History of contact

The Cobourg cattle company took up a lease for hunting buffalo in the Alligator River area in 1876, and Aboriginal people were a major part of the workforce. The Gaagudju, with the arrival of the feral buffalo hunter Paddy Cahill in their area in the 1880s, were employed by him in tracking and harvesting kills of this introduced animal. For many decades they dominated the industry. There was a dramatic population collapse in that area for the next three decades (1880-1920) due to introduced diseases and new colonial land use. Most of the material collected by Baldwin Spencer over two months on the people of
Oenpelli Gunbalanya (also spelt Kunbarlanja, and historically referred to as Oenpelli) is an Aboriginal Australian town in west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, about east of Darwin. The main language spoken in the community is Kunw ...
reflects a Gaagudja perspective, since Spencer's main informant, Cahill, happened to be fluent in that language and was an intermediary between Spencer and the three Indigenous informants, Mitcheralaka (Madjirrilaaga) of the Mirarr clan, Kopereiki (Gabhirrigi) of the Bunidj clan, and Wardiirdi, also of the Bunidj, and Wudeirti, but at the same time Spencer realised that several other Aboriginal peoples were present at Oenpelli and that Cahill's Gaagudeju testimony covered their distinct traditions as well. After Cahill's death the Gaahudju shifted to the Alice and Mary River areas, to continue buffalo hunting, and gradually Oenpelli was occupied by the
Kunwinjku The Kunwinjku (formerly written Gunwinggu) people are an Australian Aboriginal people, one of several groups within the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory. Kunwinjku people generally refer t ...
, who moved in from the west.


Notable people

*
Big Bill Neidjie Big Bill Neidjie ( – 23 May 2002), nicknamed "Kakadu Man", was the last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language, an Aboriginal Australian language from northern Kakadu, after which Kakadu National Park is named. He was an elder of the Ga ...
, last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language and elder of the Bunitj clan


Notes


Citations


Sources

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Further reading

* {{Authority control Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory