Traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal Tribes around Derby

The Warrwa, also spelt Warwa, 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

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region of

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

Warrwa is an eastern Nyulnyulan language, sufficiently closely related to

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''). ...

to be classified as a dialect of the latter.

Country

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 ...

's estimate, the Warrwa's domains encompassed approximately , extending along the eastern shores of

King Sound King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River (Western Australia), Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about long, and averag ...

from

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

to Round Hill on Stokes Bay. Their inland extension reached as far as the upper Logue River. Their presence on the Fitzroy River was thought to run only as far as Yeeda. They were also present in the area of

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

, and north of Meda, inland to roughly . To their north lay the Umiida, on their eastern flank were the Unggumi, while the

were on their southern frontier.

Pre-contact times

According to Tindale, in pre-contact times, the Warrwa were affected by the movement of the Nyigina down the Fitzroy river, which effectively drove a wedge between Warrwa clans, that were subsequently cut off from each other. The incoming Nyigina distinguished thereafter the western Warwa ('little Warrwa') from the eastern Warrwa around Derby and Meda ('big Warrwa').

Alternative names

* ''Waruwa'' * ''Warwai, Warrwai'' * ''Kolaruma'' (an Unggumi

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 ...

for them meaning 'people of the coast')

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia Kimberley (Western Australia)