The Yawuru, also spelt Jawuru, are an
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
people of the
Kimberley region of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...
.
Language
A Japanese linguist, Hosokawa Kōmei (細川弘明), compiled the first basic dictionary of the
Yawuru language
Yawuru is a Western Nyulnyulan language spoken on the coast south of Broome in Western Australia.
Grammatically it resembles other Nyulnyulan languages. It has a relatively free word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear o ...
in 1988, and followed it up with a comprehensive
descriptive grammar
In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013).
All acad ...
in 2011.
Country
Their territory, much of it of open
saltmarsh
A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...
, encompasses the area from the eastern shores of
Roebuck Bay
Roebuck Bay is a bay on the coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Its entrance is bounded in the north by the town of Broome, and in the south by Bush Point and Sandy Point. It is named after , the ship captained by Willia ...
south of Roebuck Plains through to the southern end of
Thangoo Station and within 5 miles of Cape Villaret. Their inland extension ran close to ''Mandikarakapo'' (Dampier Downs). Norman Tindale's overall estimate of their territory posits a domain of roughly .
Their neighbouring tribes were the
Jukan to the north, and, running clockwise, the
Warrwa
The Warrwa, also spelt Warwa, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Language
Warrwa is an eastern Nyulnyulan language, sufficiently closely related to Nyigina to be classified as a dialect of the l ...
northeast, the
Nyigina
The Nyikina people (also spelt Nyigina and Nyikena, and listed as Njikena by Tindale) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
They come from the lower Fitzroy River (which they call ''mardoowarra''). ...
on the eastern hinterland, and on their southern frontier the
Karajarri
The Karajarri are an Aboriginal Australian people, who once lived south-west of the Kimberleys in the northern Pilbara region, predominantly between the coastal area and the Great Sandy Desert. They now mostly reside at Bidyadanga, south of B ...
, The border with the latter is marked by an ecological transition from the coastal saltmarsh plains to the dense, sandy
pindan scrubland occupied by the Karajarri.
Social structure and beliefs
The Yawuru people in Broome also include the
Djugun and the two are distinguished only by minor
dialectal differences.
In Yawuru cosmology, the primordial time and its world (''bugarrigarra'') is still present in its creative force, governing social relations, informing the way one interacts with the maritime and continental landscape within their traditional territory, and securing the well-being (''liyan'') of the community (''ngarrungunil''). The traditional
kinship structure, typical also of other contiguous tribal groups such as the
Karajarri
The Karajarri are an Aboriginal Australian people, who once lived south-west of the Kimberleys in the northern Pilbara region, predominantly between the coastal area and the Great Sandy Desert. They now mostly reside at Bidyadanga, south of B ...
,
Nyikina and
Mangala
Mangala (Sanskrit: मङ्गल, IAST: ) is the personification, as well as the name for the planet Mars, in Hindu literature. Also known as Lohita (), he is the celibate deity of anger, aggression, as well as war. According to Vaishnavism, ...
, is fourfold, consisting of the ''Banaga'' and the ''Burungu'', the ''Garimba'' and the ''Barrjarri'', the first two in each case form the binary unit of optimal marriage choice. Children assume their kin-tribal identity through the mother. Thus, a child born to a Banaga father and a Burungu woman is classified as Barrjarri, while a Garimba woman married to a Barrjarri man produces Banaga offspring.
Ecology
The Yawuru recognize six seasons in the year: ''Barrgana'', ''Wirlburu'', ''Laja'', ''Marrul'', ''Wirralburu'' and ''Man-gala''. The drycold season (''Barrgana'') coincides with a change of fishing from the open sea to the
native salmon in creeks; after a brief transitional phase (''Wirlburu''), the ''Laja'' period, encompassing September to November, kicks in, called "married turtle time" where abundance caches of eggs can be harvested from the beaches, and reef fishing feasible. The humid ''Marrul'' period follows, when one fishes for
whiting,
trevally
The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the only fami ...
,
queenfish
The queenfish (''Seriphus politus'') is a species of fish in the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. It is native to the eastern Pacific Ocean, where it occurs along the North American coastline from Oregon to Baja California; it has been ...
and
mullet.
Traditional food
The Yawuru are a coastal people whose basic diet consisted of seafood – fish, turtles,
stingray
Stingrays are a group of sea rays, which are cartilaginous fish related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae ...
s,
dugong
The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest m ...
, crabs and
mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...
shells – but also
sand monitors,
flying foxes
''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names.
They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Austr ...
, and bush food foraged in the semi-arid
pindan scrub country, divided into edible bush fruits for which they have over 90 terms, covering such things as wattle seed and native tubers, to wallabies,
goanna
A goanna is any one of several species of lizards of the genus '' Varanus'' found in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Around 70 species of ''Varanus'' are known, 25 of which are found in Australia. This varied group of carnivorous reptiles ranges ...
and varieties of birds from
native hens and
crested pigeons to the
bush turkey. Maritime fruits were prepared, after fermentation, by heating them in a
baler shell over hot coals.
Maritime hunting technology consisted of fishing spears, fishing
boomerang
A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning ...
s, fish-stunning poisons (''bunjuda''), nets made of massed grass sheaves (''marukutju:n'') shoved through waters to corner fish., and by building rock ponds fenced with stakes fashioned from mangrove wood, whose base was woven with
spinifex to trap fish in the tidal outflows. The timing for hunting stingrays was signaled by the onset of ''nyalnyala'' blossoms from a ''guardo'' tree, which corresponded seasonally with the period of stingray fattening.
Modern period
The Yawuru now predominantly live in Broome, which was built on traditional
Djugun lands. Locally descendants of both groups self-identify as being one traditional group:"Jugun and Yawuru are one", and consider the land of both as one single unit, with the majority of Djugun families assimilated into the Yawuru.
Native title
Following a Federal Court decision by Justice Ron Merkel in 2010, the Yawuru people became one of the
native title holders of the Western Australian town of
Broome, including pockets of land in and around the townsite and two pastoral stations.
Where They Live
The Yawuru people are the
traditional owners
Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have right ...
of the lands and waters in and around
Rubibi (the town of
Broome) from
Bangarangara to the yalimban (south) to Wirrjinmirr (Willie Creek) to the guniyan (north), and banu (east) covering
Roebuck Plains
Roebuck Plains Station is a pastoral lease that is located close to the township of Broome in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is one of the closest pastoral leases to Broome.
Roebuck Plains is also the name of a roadhouse on the ...
and
Thangoo pastoral lease
A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands.
Australia
Pastoral lease ...
s, in the
Kimberley region of northern Western Australia.
Alternative names
* ''Djauor''
* ''Gawor''
* ''Jaoro, Jauro''
* ''Jawuru'', (
Mangala
Mangala (Sanskrit: मङ्गल, IAST: ) is the personification, as well as the name for the planet Mars, in Hindu literature. Also known as Lohita (), he is the celibate deity of anger, aggression, as well as war. According to Vaishnavism, ...
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...
).
* ''Kakudu-Kakudu'' (idem)
* ''Nawudu''. (also used to designate the Karajarri)
* ''Yaoro, Yauro''
* ''Yaroro''
* ''Yauera''
* ''Yauor/Jauor''
* ''Yawur''
Source:
Prominent Yawuru
*
Mick Dodson
Michael James Dodson (born 10 April 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian barrister, academic, and member of the Yawuru people in the Broome area of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia.
His brother is Pat Dodson, also a noted ...
*
Pat Dodson
Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson (born 29 January 1948) is an Australian politician representing Western Australia in the Australian Senate. He is a Yawuru elder from Broome, Western Australia. He has been chairman of the Council for Aboriginal ...
*
Alan Pigram
*
Stephen Pigram
Stephen Pigram (born 1960) is an Australian musician, songwriter and member of the Yawuru people.
He has been a member of Kuckles (1981–82), Scrap Metal (band), Scrap Metal (1983–95) and the Pigram Brothers (1996–present). With his brot ...
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{Authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia
Broome, Western Australia