The Bakanambia, also known as the Wanbara, are an
Aboriginal group of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. Traditionally, the Bakanambia lived in the vicinity of
Princess Charlotte Bay
Princess Charlotte Bay is a large bay on the east coast of Far North Queensland at the base of Cape York Peninsula, 350 km north northwest of Cairns. Princess Charlotte Bay is a part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and it is a habitat ...
in the state of
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
. One of the
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
s applied to them was
Lama Lama, which is now used of a larger aggregation of remnants of several tribes.
Country
The Bakanambia's lands covered the southern and eastern shores of Princess Charlotte Bay, and extended inland as far as the tidal limits of the
Normanby and
north Kennedy rivers, and included
Lakefield. The coastal zone is swamp ridden and covered by mangroves, which means that the Bakanambia mainly lived along the aforementioned rivers. Their territory is estimated to have covered an area of around .
Language
Bakanambia was a member of the Lama subgroup of north Queensland
Pama–Nyungan languages
The Pama–Nyungan languages () are the most widespread language family, family of Australian Aboriginal languages, containing 306 out of 400 Aboriginal languages in Australia. The name "Pama–Nyungan" is a merism: it is derived from the two e ...
. According to
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...
, the Bakanambia suffered from a statistically high incidence of
cleft palate
A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nose. The ...
, a factor which influenced their language.
History of contact
The Bakanambia were one of the "mobs" (the others being the
Kokowara and
Mutumui) that attacked
Edmund Kennedy
Edmund Besley Court Kennedy J. P. (5 September 1818 – December 1848) was an explorer in Australia in the mid-19th century. He was the Assistant-Surveyor of New South Wales, working with Thomas Mitchell (explorer), Sir Thomas Mitchell. Kenned ...
's exploratory party as it passed through their territory. The principal informant for the language of the Princess Charlotte Bay area, as jotted down by a local resident, W. O. Hodginson and cited by
Edward Micklethwaite Curr
Edward Micklethwaite Curr (25 December 1820 – 3 August 1889) was an Australian pastoralist, author, advocate of Australian Aboriginal peoples, and squatter.
Biography
Curr was born in Hobart, Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land), the ...
, and indexed as bearing on the Bakanambia by Norman Tindale, was a 10-year-old boy nicknamed Mal by the couple who kidnapped him. Curr notes the circumstances and adds that:
it is not at all an unusual circumstance in North Queensland for a boy of tender years to be seized by a White man, taken away from his tribe and country, and brought up ass a stockman or station hand, in which capacity his excellent sight and powers of tracking animals render him specially useful.
Alternative names
* ''Wanbara''
* ''Kokolamalama'' (
exonym
An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...
applied to them by more southern tribes)
* ''Lamalama''
* ''Lamul-lamul''
* ''Kokaoalamalma'' (either a corrupt reading or a typo)
* ''Mukinna''
* ''Banambia''
* ''Banambila''
Some words
* ''guarga'' (wild dog)
* ''parra'' (white man)
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Further reading
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Queensland
Far North Queensland