The Wik Elken, also spelt Wik-Kalkan and also known as Wik-Ngatharr, 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, one of the

Wik peoples The Wik peoples are an Indigenous Australian group of people from an extensive zone on western Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland, speaking several different languages. They are from the coastal flood plains bounding the Gulf of Carpentar ...

of the

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

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 ...

Language

The Wik-Kalkan language belonged to the Wik language group.

Country

The Wik-Kalkan lay north of the

Wikepa The Wik Epa, also spelt Wikepa, are an Aboriginal Australian people, one of the Wik peoples of the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland. Languages Wikepa was were used by an older generation of Cape Keerweer people to denote the dialect ...

, along the coast north of Cape Keerweer, and, 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 ...

, once had tribal lands of approximately in extent.

People

The Wik-Kalkan has been described under the name of "Wikngatara" by

Ursula McConnel Ursula Hope McConnel (1888–1957) was a Queensland anthropologist and ethnographer best remembered for her work with, and the records she made of, the Wik Mungkan people of Cape York Peninsula. First trained at University College London, the ...

in various papers. This term actually was a language name, rather than an

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 ...

, and signified "my language". McConnel realised her error shortly before her death, and notified Tindale of the oversight.

Alternative names

Alternative names and spellings identified by Tindale include: * ''Wik-ngatara'' (erroneous term) * ''Wik Alkän'' * ''Wikkalkin'' * ''Wik-nätara'' * ''Algan'' * ''Ngadara''

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Queensland