Nyamal
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The Nyamal are an
Indigenous Australian people Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups, w ...
of the
Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...
area of north-western
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
.


Language

A version of Nyamal became the basis of a pidgin used among workers on pearling luggers in the late 19th century, and was spoken several hundred miles away, as was
Ngarluma The Ngarluma are an Indigenous Australian people of the western Pilbara area of northwest Australia. They are coastal dwellers of the area around Roebourne and Karratha, excluding Millstream. Language The Ngarluma language belongs to the Ngay ...
One Nyamal word has entered English, ''kaluta'', the common term now used to refer to a distinct species of marsupial Dasukaluta rosamondae, mistakenly classified as an
antechinus ''Antechinus'' (// ('ant-echinus')) is a genus of small dasyurid marsupial endemic to Australia. They resemble mice with the bristly fur of shrews. Names They are also sometimes called 'broad-footed marsupial mice', 'pouched mice', or 'Ante ...
before it was correctly identified in 1982.


Country

The Nyamal are a coastal people though their traditional lands extend inland through to the Yarrie country of the
De Grey River The De Grey River is a river located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It was named on 16 August 1861 by the explorer and surveyor Francis Gregory after Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, who was at the time the president of the Royal ...
, the name ''yari'' denoting the white ochre on the river banks. It extended east of the
Karajarri The Karajarri, also spelt Garadjara, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia. They live south-west of the Kimberleys in the northern Pilbara region, predominantly between the coastal area and the Great Sandy Desert. They now mo ...
coastal zone, and from
Port Hedland A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...
through to Marble Bar and Nullagine, south over the Shaw River, and north over the
Oakover River The Oakover River is a river in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise north of the Wadara Range and west of the Saltbush range near Junction Well then flows in a northerly direction. The river continues nort ...
to the borders of Martu tribal lands such as those of the Manyjilyjarra, Wanman, Nyangumarta and Ngarla.
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 ...
estimated their territorial extension as covering .
Bush tucker Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and historically eaten by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora, fauna, or fungi used for culinary or medicinal ...
included ''mangkurrka'' cuts from the Punara tree. Two types of kangaroo were hunted, the plain variety (''warrinykura'') and a hill species (''wijunu''). The lure of the native fig tee fruit was used to catch both bush turkey, which was trapped in a grass net splayed out in the branches, and emu, which was enticed through an artificial gap in a contrived hedge of bush shrubs, and then fell into spiked ditches dug and then camouflaged with leafage and sand.


History

Part of the traditional Nyamal lands around the de Grey river were taken up by the pastoralist
Walter Padbury Walter Padbury (22 December 1817 – 18 April 1907) was a British-born Australian pioneer, politician and philanthropist. Early life Padbury was born in Fawler in the English county of Oxfordshire on 22 December 1817 and baptised on 11 Ja ...
in 1963, and, after conditions proved too arduous for his foreman Nairn, the station changed hands, and was managed by McKenzie Grant, A.W. Anderson and, later, Charles Harper. Eventually local survivors found work, on the new pastoral leases where a white jackaroo could earn £5 a month. In 1885 they sheared over 13,000 sheep in a month and a half, not paid for in wages, but with flour, sugar and tobacco. Vast flocks of sheep ate up the grasses and bush tucker resources that had been one of the staples of people like the Nyamal, forcing them into more dependence on the stations.


Peter Coppin

Peter Coppin was an elder of the Nyamal whose life story was recorded by Jolly Read before he died. Born near Yarrie Station with the birth-name ''Karriwarna'' in 1920, he avoided the fate of many other half-caste (''mardamarda'' or 'red-red' in Nyamal) children in the region, of being kidnapped by the then so-called Protector of Aborigines, a certain Mitchell, and relative of Sir James Mitchell, who, apart from fathering many children on Aboriginal women in the locality, would round up those of mixed descent and take them to the
Moore River Native Settlement The Moore River Native Settlement was the name of the now defunct Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal settlement and internment camp located north of Perth and west of Mogumber, Western Australia, Mogumber in Western Australia, near the Source ...
. His mother shifted him to the Warralong station run by the Hardie brothers, and where the aborigines grew up to be, according to his memory of their repute, the best stockmen in the world.


Notes and references


Notes


Sources

* * * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia Broome, Western Australia