The Alawa people are an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

people from

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The suburb of Alawa in the Darwin's north, is named in their honour.

Language

The Alawa language is a non Pama-Nyungan language, classified by

Jeffrey Heath Jeffrey Heath (born November 29, 1949) is Professor of Historical linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Morphology (linguistics), Morphology, Arabic and Linguistic anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Michigan, US. He is know ...

as one of three of a subgroup, together with Marra and Warndarang, though this is now contested. It had only 18 speakers in a report dated 1991 (''Ethnologue''). That number was reduced to 12 by 2013. The speakers of Alawa are mainly adults, and most Alawa speak Kriol, though there are Alawa language revival efforts at the

Minyerri Minyerri is a town located 240 km south-east of Katherine, Northern Territory.http://www.rahc.com.au/sites/default/files/documents/community_profiles/Minyerri%20Community%20Profile.pdf The town has a population of 618 people, and is part ...

School in the Alawa community.

Country

Traditional Alawa territory covered some and extended from the southern tributaries of the

Roper River The Roper River is a large perennial river located in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory of Australia. Location and features Formed by the confluence of the Waterhouse River and Roper Creek, the Roper River rises east of Mataranka ...

upstream from the mouth of the Hodgson River west to Roper valley; south to Mason Bluff (Mount Mueller) and Hodgson Downs; east to the headwaters of Mountain Creek.

Lifestyle

The traditional lifestyle of the Alawa consisted of harvesting and hunting the abundant food resources provided by their land, which was rich in species of turtle, duck, crocodiles and fish. They had a technique of conserving foods for considerable periods.

Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. Life Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...

was shown in 1922 a refuge cave they maintained at Mountain Creek well stocked with buried stores of water lily seeds, and roots, which were first sun-dried, then rubbed with red ochre before being wrapped and packed in paperbark sheets. After the loss of their lands they specialized in working as jackaroos on pastoral stations.

History

The Alawa tribe, like many others in the Roper River region, were hunted down in an extermination policy developed by the pastoral company that took over the Hodgson Downs in 1903, and remnants took refuge from the killing teams by seeking the protection of pastoralists who would employ them, or on church missions.

Native title

Together with the Ngandji people, the descendants of the Alawa have laid a native title claim to the Cox River block.

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory