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Noongar

(Redirected fromNyoongar)
For other uses, seeNoongar (disambiguation).

TheNoongar(/ˈnʊŋɑːr/,also speltNoongah,Nyungar/ˈnjʊŋɑːr/,Nyoongar,Nyoongah,Nyungah,Nyugah,andYunga[1]/ˈjʊŋɑː/) areAboriginal Australianpeople who live in thesouth-west cornerofWestern Australia,fromGeraldtonon the west coast toEsperanceon the south coast. There are 14 different groups in the Noongar cultural bloc:Amangu,Ballardong,Yued,Kaneang,Koreng,Mineng,Njakinjaki,Njunga,Pibelmen,Pindjarup,Wadandi,Whadjuk,WiilmanandWudjari.[a]The Noongar people refer to their land asNoongar boodja.[b][3]

Noongar groups

The members of the collective Noongarcultural blocdescend from people who spoke several languages and dialects that were oftenmutually intelligible.[citation needed]What is now classified as theNoongar languageis a member of the largePama–Nyunganlanguage family. Contemporary Noongar speakAustralian Aboriginal English(a dialect of the English language) laced with Noongar words and occasionally inflected by its grammar. Most contemporary Noongar trace their ancestry to one or more of these groups. In the 2011 Australian census, 10,549 people identified as indigenous in the south-west of Western Australia.[4]By 2021, this number had increased to 14,355.[5]

Name

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Theendonymof the Noongar comes from a word originally meaning "man" or "person".[6][citation needed]

Language

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Main article:Noongar language

At the time of European settlement, it is believed that the peoples of what became the Noongar community spoke thirteen dialects, of which five still have speakers with some knowledge of their respective versions of the language.[7]No speakers use it over the complete range of everyday speaking situations, and the full resources of the language are available only to a few individuals.[8]

Ecological context

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The Noongar peoples have sixseasonswhose time frame is defined by specific observable changes to the environment, with a dry period varying from as few as three to as many as eleven months.[9][c]Tribes are spread over three different geological systems: the coastal plains, the plateau, and the plateau margins; all areas are characterized by relatively infertile soil. The north is characterized by casuarina, acacia, and melaleuca thickets, and the south by mulga scrubland, but it also supports dense forest stands. Several rivers run to the coast, and lakes and wetlands provided the Noongar people with their distinctive food and vegetation resources.[11]

Generally, Noongar made a living by hunting and trapping a variety of game, including kangaroos,possumsand wallabies; for people close to the coastal zone or riverine systems, spear-fishing or culling fish in traps was customary. An extensive range ofedible wild plantswere also available, including yams andwattleseeds. Nuts of thezamia palm,eaten during theDjeranseason (April–May)[10]required extensive treatment to remove theirtoxicity,and for women, they may have had a contraceptive effect.[citation needed]As early as 10,000BPlocal people utilisedquartz,replacingchertflint for spear and knife edges when the chert deposits were submerged by sea level rise during theFlandrian transgression.[citation needed]

History of contact

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Main article:Aboriginal history of Western Australia

Before the arrival ofEuropeans,the Noongar population has been variously estimated at between 6,000 and some tens of thousands.[12]Colonisation by the British brought both violence and new diseases, taking a heavy toll on the population.[13]The Noongar, like many other Aboriginal peoples,[14]saw the arrival of Europeans as the returning of deceased people, often imagining them as relatives who deserved accommodation. As they approached from the west, the newcomers were calleddjaanga(ordjanak), meaning "white spirits".[15]

Carrolup River Native Settlement,c. 1951,nearKatanning

Initially, relations were generally cordial.Matthew Flindersrecognised the success of his three-week sojourn as due in good part to Noongar diplomacy, and Noongar rituals celebrated their reception of the newcomers in a ceremonial form.[d]When settlement became more firmly established, however, misunderstandings over the obligations of reciprocity—some of the most productive land was being taken, especially on the Upper Swan—led to sporadic clashes. An example of such misunderstandings was the Noongar land-management practice of setting fires in early summer, mistakenly seen as an act of hostility by the settlers. Conversely, the Noongar saw the settlers' livestock as fair game to replace the dwindling stocks of native animals shot indiscriminately by settlers.[citation needed]The only area that successfully resisted the usurpation of native land for any time was the area around theMurray River,which effectively blocked expansion of the tiny settlement atMandurahfor almost half a decade.[17]

In June 1832, a Whadjuk leader,[18]Yagan,formerly of good standing among the settler authorities and known in the colony for his handsome bearing, "tall, slender, well-fashioned..of pleasing countenance", was, together with his fatherMidgegoorooand brother Monday, declared an outlaw after undertaking a series of food raids and a retaliatory murder. Caught and imprisoned, he escaped and was let alone, as though informally reprieved as a native version ofWilliam Wallace.[19][e]His father was caught and killed without trial by a military firing squad. Yagan himself, with a bounty on his head, was ambushed soon afterwards by an 18-year-old settler youth,[18]after he had stopped two settlers and asked for flour.[19]His corpse was decapitated, and the head was sent to England for display in fairgrounds.[f]Yagan is now considered a Noongar hero,[19]by many to have been one of the first indigenousresistancefighters.[22]Matters escalated with conflicts between the settlement ofThomas Peeland the Pindjarup people, resulting in thePinjarra massacre.Similarly, struggles withBallardongpeople in the Avon Valley continued until violently suppressed by LieutenantHenry William St Pierre Bunbury.Notwithstanding this violence, extraordinary acts of goodwill existed. In the same year, 1834, the Swan River Noongar couple, Migo and Molly Dobbin, alerted to the fact a European child had gone missing, covered 35 kilometres (22 mi) in 10 hours tracking hisspoors,and saved him, at the point of death.[23]

From August 1838, ten Aboriginal prisoners were sent toRottnest Island(Nyungar:Wadjemup,possibly meaning "place across the water"[24]). After a short period when both settlers and prisoners occupied the island, theColonial Secretaryannounced in June 1839 that the island would become a penal establishment for Aboriginal people and was officially designated as such in 1841.[25]From that time until 1903, when the indigenous section was closed,[26]Rottnest Island was used as a prison to transfer Aboriginal prisoners "overseas". To "pacify" the Aboriginal population, men were rounded up and chained for offences ranging from spearing livestock, burning the bush, or digging vegetables on what had been their own land. It quickly became a "place of torment, deprivation and death",[27]and it has been estimated that there may be as many as 369 Aboriginal graves on the island, of which five were for prisoners who had been hanged. Except for a short period between 1849 and 1855, during which the prison was closed, some 3,700 Aboriginal men and boys, many of them Noongars, but also many others from all parts of the state, were imprisoned.[28]

A notable incident for the Noongar people in the Western Australian Colony was the arrival ofRosendo Salvadoin 1846. Salvado was an advocate for the humane treatment of the Australian Aboriginals at the mission he created atNew Norcia,in the territory of theYued.He provided refuge for theNjungaand he defended many on charges of theft, arguing from church doctrine that theft was not criminal if dictated by dire necessity. While intent on converting, he encouraged the Noongars to maintain their traditional culture.[29]

From 1890 to 1958, the lives and lifestyles of Noongar people were subject to the Native Welfare Act. By 1915, 15% of Perth's Noongar had been thrust north and interned at theMoore River Native Settlement.[30]Carrolup (later known asMarribank) became the home of up to one-third of the population. It is estimated that 10 to 25% of Noongar children were forcibly "adopted" during these years, in part of what has become known as theStolen Generations.[31]

Culture

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Olman Walley, a Noongar performer, in traditional Noongar clothing

Noongar people live in many country towns throughout the south-west as well as in the major population centres ofPerth,Mandurah,Bunbury,Geraldton,AlbanyandEsperance.Many country Noongar people have developed long-standing relationships with non-Noongar farmers and continue to huntkangarooand gatherbush tucker(food) as well as teach their children stories about the land. In a few areas in the south-west, visitors can go onbush tuckerwalks, trying foods such askangaroo,emu,quandongjam or relish,bush tomatoes,witchetty grubpâté and bush honey.

Thebukais a traditional cloak of the Noongar people made of kangaroo skin.[32]

The kodj ("to be hit on the head") or kodja[33]is a Noongarhaftedaxe.[34][35][36][37]Kojonup, Western AustraliaandThe Kodja Placevisitor centre,[38]in Kojonup, are named after the kodj.[citation needed]

In Perth, the Noongar believe that theDarling Scarpis said to represent the body of aWagyl,a snakelikeDreamtimecreature that is a commondeityin Noongar culture, that meandered over the land creating rivers, waterways, and lakes. It is thought that the Wagyl created theSwan River.The Wagyl has been associated withWonambinaracoutensis,part of the extinctmegafaunaof Australia that disappeared between 15 and 50,000 years ago.

The Swan River
Swan River, withCanning Riverin light blue

Also in Perth,Mount Elizawas an important site for the Noongar. It was a hunting site where kangaroos were herded and driven over the edge to provide meat for gathering clans. In this context, the "clan" is a local descent group – larger than a family but based on family links through common ancestry. At the base of Mount Eliza is a sacred site where the Wagyl is said to have rested during its journeys. This site is also the location of the formerSwan Brewerywhich has been a source of contention between local Noongar groups (who would like to see the land, which was reclaimed from the river in the late 19th century, "restored" to them) and the title-holders who wished to develop the site. A Noongar protest camp existed here for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Noongar culture is particularly strong with the written word. TheplaysofJack Davisare on the school syllabus in several Australian states. Davis' first full-length playKullark,a documentary on the history of Aboriginals in WA, was first produced in 1979. Other plays include:No Sugar, The Dreamers, Barungin: Smell the Wind, In Our Townand for younger audiences,Honey SpotandMoorli and the Leprechaun.Kim Scottwon the 2000Miles Franklin Awardfor his novelBenangand the 2011 award forThat Deadman Dance.

Yirra Yaakin[39] describes itself as the response to the Aboriginal community's need for positive self-enhancement through artistic expression. It is a theatre company that strives for community development and which also has the drive to create "exciting, authentic and culturally appropriate indigenous theatre".

Many local governments in the southwest have developed "compacts" or "commitments" with their local Noongar communities to ensure that sites of significance are protected and that the culture is respected. At the same time, the Western Australian Barnett government, also from November 2014, had been forcing the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee to deregister 300 Aboriginal sacred sites in Western Australia.[40][41]Although falling most heavily upon Pilbara and Kimberley sites this government policy also was having an impact on Noongar lands according to Ira Hayward-Jackson, Chairman of the Rottnest Island Deaths Group.[42]The changes also removed rights of notification and appeal fortraditional ownersseeking to protect their heritage. A legal ruling on 1 April 2015 overturned the government's actions on some of the sites deregistered which were found to be truly sacred.[citation needed]

Elders are increasingly asked on formal occasions to provide a "Welcome to Country",and the first steps of teaching the Noongar language in the general curriculum have been made.[43]

In recent years there has been considerable interest in Noongar visual arts. In 2006, Noongar culture was showcased as part of thePerth International Arts Festival.A highlight of the Festival was the unveiling of the monumental "Ngallak Koort Boodja – Our Heart Land Canvas". The 8-metre (26 ft) canvas was commissioned for the festival by representatives of the united elders and families from across the Noongar nation. It was painted by leading Noongar artistsShane Pickett,Tjyllyungoo,Yvonne Kickett,Alice WarrellandSharyn Egan.

October 2021 saw the opening of the first Noongar operaKoolbardi wer Wardong.Written byGina Williamsand Guy Ghouse, the opera was performed atHis Majesty's Theatreby members ofWest Australian Opera,West Australian Young Voices, Noongar Children's Choir and the Western Australian Youth Orchestra.[44]

Noongar ecology

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Regions

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The Noongar people occupied and maintained theMediterranean climatelands of thesouth-west ecoregionof Western Australia, and made sustainable use of seven biogeographic regions of their territory, namely:[citation needed]

These seven regions have been acknowledged as abiodiversityhot-spot,[45]having a generally greater number ofendemic speciesthan most other regions in Australia. The ecological damage done to this region through clearing, introduced species, byferalanimals and non-endemic plants is also severe, and has resulted in a high proportion of plants and animals being included in the categories of rare, threatened and endangered species. In modern times many Aboriginal men were employed intermittently as rabbiters, andrabbitbecame an important part of Noongar diet in the early 20th century. The Noongar territory also happens to conform closely with the south-west Indian Ocean Drainage Region, and the use of these water resources played a very important seasonal part in their culture.[citation needed]

Seasons

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Further information:Indigenous Australian seasons

The Noongar thus have a close connection with the earth and, as a consequence, they divided the year intosix distinct seasonsthat corresponded with moving to different habitats and feeding patterns based on seasonal foods.[46]They are:[47]

  • Birak(December/January) – Dry and hot. Noongar burned sections of scrubland to force animals into the open for easier hunting.[48]
  • Bunuru(February/March) – Hottest part of the year, with sparse rainfall throughout.[49]
  • Djeran(April/May) – Cooler weather begins. Fishing continued and bulbs and seeds were collected for food.[50]
  • Makuru(June/July) – Cold fronts that have until now brushed the lower south-west coast begin to cross further north. This is usually the wettest part of the year.[51]
  • Djilba(August/September) – Often the coldest part of the year, with clear, cold nights and days, or warmer, rainy and windy periods.[52]
  • Kambarang(October/November) – A definite warming trend is accompanied by longer dry periods and fewer cold fronts crossing the coast. The height of the wildflower season.[53][54][55]

Native title

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Further information:South West Native Title Settlement

On 19 September 2006 theFederal Court of Australiabrought down a judgment which recognisednative titlein an area over the city ofPerthand its surrounds, known asBennell v State of Western Australia[2006] FCA 1243.[56]Anappealwas subsequently lodged and was heard in April 2007. The remainder of the larger "Single Noongar Claim" area, covering 193,956 km2(74,887 sq mi) of the south-west of Western Australia, remains outstanding, and will hinge on the outcome of this appeal process. In the interim, the Noongar people together will continue to be involved in native title negotiations with theGovernment of Western Australia,and are represented by theSouth West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council.

Justice Wilcox's judgment is noteworthy for several reasons. It highlights Perth's wealth of post-European settlement writings which provide an insight into Aboriginal life, including laws and customs, around the time of settlement in 1829 and also into the beginning of the last century. These documents enabled Justice Wilcox to find that laws and customs governing land throughout the whole Single Noongar Claim (taking in Perth, and many other towns in the greater South West) were those of a single community. The claimants shared a language and had extensive interaction with others in the claim area.

Importantly, Justice Wilcox found the Noongar community constituted a united society which had continued to exist despite the disruption resulting frommixed marriageand people being forced off their land and dispersed to other areas as a result of white settlement and later Government policies.

In April 2008 the Full Bench of the Federal Court upheld parts of the appeal by the Western Australian and Commonwealth governments against Justice Wilcox's judgment.[57]

Other native title claims on Noongar lands include:[citation needed]

  • Gnaala Karla Booja: the headwaters of the Murray and Harvey Rivers to the Indian Ocean
  • The Harris Family: The coasts of the area fromBusseltontoAugusta
  • The South West Boojarah: Lower course of the Blackwood and adjacent coastal areas
  • Southern Noongar Wagyl Kaip: The South Coast to the Blackwood Tributaries
  • The Ballardong Lands: The interior Wheatbelt.

Economics

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Since the Noongar are largely urbanised or concentrated in major regional towns, studies have shown that the direct economic impact of the Noongar community on the WA economy was estimated to range between five and seven hundred million dollars per year.[58]Exit polls of tourists leaving Western Australia have consistently shown that "lack of contact with indigenous culture" has been their greatest regret. It has been estimated that this results in the loss of many millions of dollars worth of foregone tourist revenue.[59]

Current issues

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As a consequence of theStolen Generationsand problems integrating with modernwesternisedsociety, many difficult issues face the present day Noongar. For example, theNoongar Men of the SouthWestgathering in 1996 identified major community problems associated withcultural dispossessionsuch as:

Many of these issues are not unique to the Noongar but in many cases they are unable to receive appropriate government-agency care. The report that was produced after this gathering also stated that Noongar men have a life expectancy of 20 years less than non-Aboriginal men, and go to hospital three times more often.[60]

The Noongar still have large extended families and many families have difficulty accessing available structures ofsheltered housingin Western Australia. The Western Australian government has dedicated several areas for the purpose of building communities specifically for the Noongar people, such as the (now closed)Swan Valley Noongar Community.

The Noongar themselves are tackling their own issues; for example, the Noongar Patrol, which is an Aboriginal Advancement Council initiative. It was set up to deter Aboriginal young people from offending behaviour and reduce the likelihood of their contact with the criminal justice system. The patrol uses mediation and negotiation with indigenous youth in an attempt to curb anti-social and offending behaviour of young people who come into the city at night.[61]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Contemporary usage tends to aggregate these into three major sub-identities: (1) the Wardandi of the coastal zone from Augusta to Bunbury; (2) the Pindjarup (Binjarub) from north Bunbury to Mandurah and Pinjarra, both coastally and inland; and (3) the Perth metropolitan and surrounding area's Whadjuk.[2]
  2. ^Boodja,sometimes speltBoodjar,is theNoongarword for "country".
  3. ^The contemporary Noongar calendar divides the year into six seasons:Binak(December–January):Bunuru(February–March);Djeran(April–May),Makuru;DjilbaandKambarang.[10]
  4. ^"The south-west corner of Western Australia provides a rare and celebrated instance of harmonious interaction that had lasting consequences. In King George Sound, explorers and early colonists owed the success of their missions to Nyungar traditions of diplomacy and hospitality. In 1803, Matthew Flinders had his marines perform a military salute to honour the Nyungar for their assistance over a three-week rest period (White 1980). For at least half a century or longer, the Nyungar would enact a variation of this ceremony, with Aboriginal men assembled in rows, military-style, with white pipe clay and red crosses painted on their chests, with sticks as guns — mimicking the 'redcoats'. By the early 1900s, however, this branch of the Nyungar clan had become extinct, victims of colonial expansion from the Swan River penal settlement and also of introduced diseases."[16]
  5. ^Yagan's brother Monday later deposed that their resistance stemmed from the many deaths the Whadjuk had suffered and their loss of access to elementary means of survival. "He stated that the number of men belonging to his tribe that were killed several times since we came to the settlement to be 16. Gave a most particular catalogue of the names, places & manner of death, & by whom killed, whether by soldier or otherwise. He complained greatly of our encroachments and interference; that they were straightened for subsistence, treated with rudeness, & prevented from walking with liberty in their own country."[20]
  6. ^Yagan's head was returned and given proper burial in 2010,[19]177 years after his death.[21]

Citations

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  1. ^SWAL&SC.
  2. ^Allbrook 2014,p. 146, n. 4.
  3. ^"Connection to Country".Kaartdijin Noongar – Noongar Knowledge.South West Aboriginal Land & Sea Council.Retrieved2 April2022.
  4. ^"2011 South-Western WA, Census Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics".abs.gov.au.Retrieved24 November2023.
  5. ^"2021 South-Western WA, Census Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics".abs.gov.au.Retrieved24 November2023.
  6. ^Birdsall 1987,p. 1?
  7. ^LOTM 2000.
  8. ^Henderson 2013,p. 58.
  9. ^Nayton 2011,p. 12.
  10. ^abRyan 2013,p. 123.
  11. ^Nayton 2011,pp. 12–13.
  12. ^Tilbrook, Lois."Nyungar Tradition: Glimpses of Aborigines of South Western Australia 1829–1914"(PDF).p. 3.
  13. ^Noongar history and culture.
  14. ^Clarke 2007,pp. 141–161.
  15. ^Moore 1842,pp. 28–29.
  16. ^McIntosh 2008,p. 175.
  17. ^Nayton 2011,p. 16.
  18. ^abAllbrook 2014,p. 49.
  19. ^abcdSeal 2011,p. 70.
  20. ^Wilson 2017,p. 115.
  21. ^AAP & AG 2010.
  22. ^Cormick 1997.
  23. ^Bedells 2010,p. 18.
  24. ^creativespirits.info.
  25. ^Bedells 2010,p. 22.
  26. ^Bedells 2010,p. 24.
  27. ^Bedells 2010,p. 23.
  28. ^Green & Moon 1997.
  29. ^Russo 1980.
  30. ^Ord & Mazzarol 2007,p. 514.
  31. ^Haebich & Delroy 1999.
  32. ^National Quilt Register.
  33. ^Akerman, Kim (2014)."Observations on edge-ground stone hatchets with hafting modifications in Western Australia"(PDF).Australian Archaeology.79.Australian Archaeological Association:137–145.doi:10.1080/03122417.2014.11682030.ISSN0312-2417.JSTOR24471323.Retrieved28 July2023.flexible wood bent around the head and with the arms tied together with sinew or fibre cord to... known as the kodj or kodja and restricted in distribution
  34. ^"Kodj (axe)".Western Australian Museum.Retrieved28 July2023.
  35. ^"Kodj".First Weapons.ABC Education. 27 June 2023.Retrieved28 July2023.
  36. ^Carty, John (2 October 2019)."To Imagine an Australian Museum".Anthropological Forum.29(4): 384–396.doi:10.1080/00664677.2019.1706038.ISSN0066-4677.Retrieved28 July2023.
  37. ^"What was the weapon of choice for the Aborigines of Australia?".calendar-australia.Retrieved28 July2023.
  38. ^
  39. ^Yirra Yaakin Noongar Theatre.
  40. ^Callinan & Quartermaine 2015.
  41. ^WGAR News 2015.
  42. ^McMahon 2015.
  43. ^Bourke, Keane (4 July 2022)."Indigenous languages being taught to 10,000 Western Australian school kids".ABC News.Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Retrieved4 July2022.
  44. ^Limelight Arts Media 2021.
  45. ^Conservation International.
  46. ^Noongar Seasons.
  47. ^Logan, Tyne (31 March 2023)."How Indigenous Australians rely on subtle changes in the environment to track the seasons".ABC News.Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Retrieved30 March2023.
  48. ^ABOM 2016,Birak.
  49. ^ABOM 2016,Bunuru.
  50. ^ABOM 2016,Djeran.
  51. ^ABOM 2016,Makuru.
  52. ^ABOM 2016,Djilba.
  53. ^ABOM 2016,Kambarang.
  54. ^Entwisle 2014,p. 25.
  55. ^Giblett 2013,p. 5.
  56. ^AustLII 2006.
  57. ^AustLII 2008.
  58. ^Ord 2006.
  59. ^Executive Summary.
  60. ^Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet.
  61. ^Nyoongar Patrol.

References

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Further reading

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  • Jennie Buchanan, Len Collard, Ingrid Cumming, David Palmer, Kim Scott,John Hartley2016.Kaya Wandjoo Ngala Noongarpedia.Special issue ofCultural Science JournalVol 9, No. 1.
  • Green, Neville,Broken spears: Aborigines and Europeans in the Southwest of Australia,Perth: Focus Education Services, 1984.ISBN0-9591828-1-0
  • Haebich, Anna,For Their Own Good: Aborigines and Government in the South West of Western Australia 1900–1940,Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press, 1992.ISBN1-875560-14-9.
  • Douglas, Wilfrid H.The Aboriginal Languages of the South-West of Australia,Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1976.ISBN0-85575-050-2


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