The Goulburn Islands are a group of small

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s and

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

s in the

Arafura Sea The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea. Geography The Arafura Sea is ...

off the coast of

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 ...

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 ...

of Australia. The largest islands are Weyirra (North Goulburn Island) and Warruwi (South Goulburn Island), where the climate is slightly cooler than in Darwin. The Warruwi or

Maung people The Maung people, or Warruwi, are an Aboriginal Australian people living on the Goulburn Islands, in the Arafura sea off the coast of the Northern Territory. Language Maung language, Maung is not one of the majority Pama-Nyungan languages, but b ...

are the

traditional owner Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

s of the Goulburn Islands. The majority of the population reside on South Goulburn Island, in the community of

Warruwi Warruwi is a mostly Aboriginal community located on South Goulburn Island, off Arnhem Land, in the West Arnhem Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is north-east of Darwin and north-east of Jabiru. At the 2016 census, Warruwi ...

and surrounding outstations, where the population was 389 in the 2016 census. The islands are notable for the large number of

Indigenous Australian languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken there. In particular, the Warruwi community on South Goulburn Island - where at least nine different languages are spoken within a population of only 450 people - has been noted as an example of receptive multilingualism.

Mondalmi Mondalmi (born c. 1910; died 23 October 1969) was an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal activist and cultural informant from Australia. Biography Mondalmi was born around 1910 in Wighu, South Goulburn Islands, Goulburn Island, Western Arnhem L ...

is one of the most well-known women from the area, as she worked with anthropologist

Catherine Berndt Catherine Helen Berndt, ''née'' Webb (8 May 1918 – 12 May 1994), born in Auckland, was an Australian anthropologist known for her research in Australia and Papua New Guinea. She was awarded in 1950 the Percy Smith Medal from the University o ...

to enable study of Aboriginal cultures there. The islands and their Indigenous inhabitants were featured in the 2015

David Grubin David Grubin (born 1944) is an American documentary filmmaker. Career Grubin is best known for producing television documentaries for PBS, notably ''American Experience'' and ''Healing And The Mind with Bill Moyers''. His work has won two Alfr ...

directed

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

documentary ''

Language Matters with Bob Holman ''Language Matters with Bob Holman'' is a 2015 documentary that focuses upon the rapid extinction of many of planet Earth's human languages and the multifarious struggles and efforts to save and preserve them. Holman states that "There are between ...

'', written and narrated by

Bob Holman Bob Holman is an American poet and poetry activist, most closely identified with the oral tradition, the spoken word, and poetry slam. As a promoter of poetry in many media, Holman has spent the last four decades working variously as an author ...

, which focused on the

loss Loss may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Loss'' (Bass Communion album) (2006) * ''Loss'' (Mull Historical Society album) (2001) *"Loss", a song by God Is an Astronaut from their self-titled album (2008) * Losses "(Lil Tjay son ...

, due to globalisation, of many of the planets' languages, such as those spoken on the Goulburn Islands.

References

External links

TPC Map including the Goulburn Islands
Arafura Sea Islands of the Northern Territory {{NorthernTerritory-geo-stub