The Yukulta people, also spelt Jokula, Jukula, and other variants, and also known as Ganggalidda or Gangalidda, are an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

people of the state of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. They may be the same as the Yanga group.

Country

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 ...

(1974) estimated that the Yukulta had about of tribal land extending from

Burketown Burketown is an isolated outback town and coastal locality in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Burketown had a population of 238 people. It is located west of Cairns and west of Normanton on the Albert Riv ...

to Hann Creek and Massacre Inlet in northern Queensland. They were also present on the coastal area to the west of

Cliffdale Creek Cliffdale Creek is a creek in Queensland, Australia. The headwaters of the creek rise at the eastern end of China Wall on the edge of the Barkly Tableland close to the border of the Northern Territory. The creek flows north easterly direction t ...

. Their inland extension was close to the Nicholson River. Their eastern frontier was on the mouth of the Albert River near Escott. Kerwin (2011) and Trigger (2015) report that the Ganggalidda traditionally lived on the southern coast of the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...

, west of :sv:Moonlight Creek. Many of their descendants now dwell in and around Mungubie (Burketown) in northern

. The

Garrwa people The Garrwa people, also spelt Karawa and Garawa, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the Northern Territory, whose traditional lands extended from east of the McArthur River at Borroloola to Doomadgee and the Nicholson River in Queen ...

occupied land to their west, the

Waanyi The Waanyi people, also spelt Wanyi, Wanji, or Waanji, are an Aboriginal Australian people from south of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Language The Waanyi language, although earlier thought to be extinct, was ...

to their south-west, the

Nguburinji The Nguburinji people, also written Ngoborindi, Oborindi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands lie in northwest Queensland. Country According to Norman Tindale, the Nguburinji lands extended over taki ...

to their south, and the

Mingginda The Mingin, also known as the Mingginda, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland, who lived in the Gulf Country east of Moonlight Creek and the Yukulta / Ganggalidda people in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. Language ...

to the east.

Native Title

The Yukulta/Ganggalida are one of four groups who placed

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

claims to coastal areas in the southern gulf region. Their claim includes the area which was originally Mingginda territory, but to which the Yukulta/Ganggalida petitioners successfully maintained that they had a right to succession. In modern Yukulta/Ganggalida tales, by virtue of many of their forebears having shifted into the area since the late 19th century, the former Mingginda sites from Burketown south through the Albert River and the lower reaches of the Nicholson River have become part of their

dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology, Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Ja ...

creation narratives.

Language

The Yukulta/Ganggalidda people spoke the

Yukulta language The Yukulta language, also spelt Yugulda, Yokula, Yukala, Jugula, and Jakula, and also known as Ganggalidda (Kangkalita, Ganggalida), is an extinct Tangkic language spoken in Queensland and Northern Territory, Australia. It was spoken by the Y ...

, a Tangkic language which is now

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

. Kangkalita (Ganggalidda) is reported as a word meaning "language".

Alternative names

* ''Jugul, Jugulda'' * ''Jogula, Jokala, Jokul, Jokal'' * ''Iukala, Yukula, Yookala'' * ''Eugoola'' * ''Jungulda''(

Yanggal The Yangkaal, also spelt Yanggal, are an Aboriginal Australian people of area of the Gulf of Carpentaria in the state of Queensland. Gananggalinda is a variant name of the same group.> Language The Yangkaal language was also known as Yanggar ...

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

Country

Native Title

Language

Alternative names

Notes

Citations

Sources