The Yangkaal, also spelt Yanggal, 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 area 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 ...
in 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 ...
.
Gananggalinda is a variant name of the same group.
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Language
Country
The Yangkaal work over of land, both on
Forsyth Island and the stretch of coastline opposite, on the mainland, running as far west as
Cliffdale Creek mainland opposite. Much of the continental coastland used by the Yangkaal was
mangrovial.
David Horton reported in ''
The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, society and culture'' that the traditional lands of the Gananggalinda were near
Bayley Point and
Point Parker on the 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 ...
. The Gananggalinda and their neighbours the
Yukulta / Ganggalidda have similar culture and language.
[Horton, David, Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia;1994, Vol. 1, p401.]
Social organisation
The Yangkaal were composed of at least three
kin groups:
* The ''Djo:ara'' (Beche-de-Mer Camp and Bayley (Robert) Island.)
* ''Laraksnja:ra'' (eastern part of Forsyth Island.)
* ''Mara'kalpa'' (western side of Forsyth Island.)
* A clan once resident on Denham Island.
History of contact
The Yangkaal eventually moved to
Mornington Island, where
Arthur Capell
Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages.
Early life
Capell was born in Newtown, New South W ...
briefly interviewed one informant, and obtained information, some of which turned out to be unreliable. He was told that their name for their homeland on Forsyth Island was Nemi, from which he deduced that their language was Nemarang. This misapprehension was corrected by
Norman Tindale, who explained that this term was the personal name of a Yangkaal person known on the
Mornington Island Mission as Edward Nemie, the latter being a distortion of the missionary's word "name".
Alternative names
* ''Njanggad''
* ''Janggaral''
* ''Janggura''
* ''Janggaralda''
* ''Jangaralda'' (
Lardil 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 ...
)
* ''Nemarang'' (recent autonym formed from the English word 'name')
* ''Balumbant'' ('westerners' as opposed to ''Lilumbant'', used of the Lardiil and
Yokula)
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Aboriginal peoples of Queensland