The Wik Paach or Wikapatja 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
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 northern
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 Wikapatja spoke
Wik Paach, which despite the name, is not one of the
Wik languages
The Wik languages are a subdivision of the Paman languages consisting of sixteen languages, all spoken on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia. This grouping was first proposed by R. M. W. Dixon.
Each of the Kugu-Muminh dialects may ...
.
Country
The Wikapatja were a small tribe whose territory, estimated by
Tindale as not exceeding , was limited to the
mangroves
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove sal ...
around the
delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet
* D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...
of the
Archer River
The Archer River is a river located on the Cape York Peninsula, Far North Queensland, Australia.
Course and features
The headwaters of the river rise in the McIlwraith Range and it flows west, traversing tropical savanna plains and wetlands ...
.
People
The tribe was deemed to be extinct by the time of Tindale's writing in 1974.
References
Sources
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Aboriginal peoples of Queensland