The Yukulta people, also spelt Jokula, Jukula, and other variants, and also known as Ganggalidda or Gangalidda, are an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

people of 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 ...

. They may be the same as the Yanga group.

Country

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 ...

(1974) estimated that the Yukulta had about of tribal land extending from

Burketown Burketown is an isolated outback town and coastal Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Cairns and west of Normanton, Queensland, Normanton on the Albert River (Gulf Sa ...

to Hann Creek and Massacre Inlet in northern Queensland. They were also present on the coastal area to the west of Cliffdale Creek. Their inland extension was close to the Nicholson River. Their eastern frontier was on the mouth of the Albert River near Escott. Kerwin (2011) and Trigger (2015) report that the Ganggalidda traditionally lived on the southern coast of the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

, west of :sv:Moonlight Creek. Many of their descendants now dwell in and around Mungubie (Burketown) in northern

. The

Garrwa people The Garrwa people, also spelt Karawa and Garawa, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the Northern Territory, whose traditional lands extended from east of the McArthur River at Borroloola to Doomadgee and the Nicholson River in Quee ...

occupied land to their west, the

Waanyi The Waanyi people, also spelt Wanyi, Wanji, or Waanji, are an Aboriginal Australian people from south of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Language Although the Waanyi language was thought to be extinct, the 2016 ...

to their south-west, the Nguburinji to their south, and the Mingginda to the east.

Native Title

The Yukulta/Ganggalida are one of four groups who placed

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty to that land by another colonising state. The requirements of proof for the recognition of ab ...

claims to coastal areas in the southern gulf region. Their claim includes the area which was originally Mingginda territory, but to which the Yukulta/Ganggalida petitioners successfully maintained that they had a right to succession. In modern Yukulta/Ganggalida tales, by virtue of many of their forebears having shifted into the area since the late 19th century, the former Mingginda sites from Burketown south through the Albert River and the lower reaches of the Nicholson River have become part of their

dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...

creation narratives.

Language

The Yukulta/Ganggalidda people spoke the

Yukulta language The Yukulta language, also spelt Yugulda, Yokula, Yukala, Jugula, and Jakula, and also known as Ganggalidda (Kangkalita, Ganggalida), is a Tangkic language spoken in Queensland and Northern Territory, Australia. It was spoken by the Yukulta peo ...

, a Tangkic language which is now

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. Kangkalita (Ganggalidda) is reported as a word meaning "language".

Alternative names

* ''Jugul, Jugulda'' * ''Jogula, Jokala, Jokul, Jokal'' * ''Iukala, Yukula, Yookala'' * ''Eugoola'' * ''Jungulda'' ( Yanggal

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 ...

Country

Native Title

Language

Alternative names

Notes

Citations

Sources