The Yapurarra or Jaburara, also rendered Yaburara, 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 Isl ...
people whose traditional lands are in the
Pilbara
The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a g ...
region of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
and the
Dampier Archipelago
The Dampier Archipelago is a group of 42 islands near the town of Dampier in the Pilbara, Western Australia.
The archipelago is also made up of reefs, shoals, channels and straits and is the traditional home of five Aboriginal language group ...
.
Language
The
Jaburara language (Yaburarra) is thought to have been similar to
Ngarluma
The Ngarluma are an Indigenous Australian people of the western Pilbara area of northwest Australia. They are coastal dwellers of the area around Roebourne and Karratha. Not including Millstream.
Language
The Ngarluma language belongs to the ...
, part of the
Ngayarda languages
The Ngayarda (''Ngayarta'' /ŋajaʈa/) languages are a group of closely related languages in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The languages classified as members of the Ngayarda languages group are (following Bowern & Koch 2004):
* Mart ...
.
Country
The Jaburara owned some of territory from around
Dampier,
Burrup, Nichol Bay and the peninsula northwards to the
Dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
and Legendre islands.
Early contact
During one of
Phillip Parker King
Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts.
Early life and education
King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Ann ...
's voyages on to survey the Australian coast, an attempt was made to communicate in February 1817 with members of the tribe, three of whom had been sighted off-shore floating on a log in the vicinity of present-day
Karratha. The intermediary used was the ship's interpreter
Bungaree
Bungaree, or Boongaree ( – 24 November 1830), was an Aboriginal Australian from the Guringai people of the Broken Bay north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader.Barani (2013)Significant Aborig ...
, who, speaking the
Broken Bay Dharug language
The Dharug language, also spelt Darug, Dharuk, and other variants, and also known as the Sydney language, Gadigal language ( Sydney city area), is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in th ...
could not understand them, but managed to calm their anxieties by undressing and showing he wore
ritual scars.
Resistance and extinction
The Jaburara, together with other local tribes such as the
Ngarluma
The Ngarluma are an Indigenous Australian people of the western Pilbara area of northwest Australia. They are coastal dwellers of the area around Roebourne and Karratha. Not including Millstream.
Language
The Ngarluma language belongs to the ...
and
Mardu-Dunera fought against the
colonization of their lands by white settlers. According to an American whaler at the time, the law that accompanied settlement in their region could be summed up as "a word and a blow: the blow, which is generally fatal, coming first". In 1868, near the present-day township of
Roebourne, in an area known in the local language as
Murujuga (hip bone sticking out), two policemen and a native tracker had been killed. The suspects, three Jaburara men, were duly caught and sentenced to imprisonment. Two parties, made up of
north coast pearlers and
settler pastoralists had been given permission by the district authority to apply lethal force "with discretion and judgement", and they attacked Jaburara encampments in a pincer movement. In what is now known as the
Flying Foam massacre it has been estimated that up to 60 Jaburara were killed. In one camp alone, some 15 were killed. Following the
La Grange massacre, this episode constitutes the second known example of the use of massacre to forcibly remove an indigenous north Western population. One small "family" was recorded in the first half of the 20th century as still surviving but the massacre effectively cut off the tribe's connections to the islands.
Heritage
The Jaburara heritage is attested by rock quarries, extensive archaic
petroglyphs, grindstones used by native women to make flour from native seeds, nomadic camps, and
middens to be found along the Jaburara Heritage Trail, which winds through an area containing some of the most extensive remains of
ancient Aboriginal rock art, some dating back 25,000 years.
Alternative names
* ''Jaburara-ngaluma'' (northern Ngaluma)
* ''Jaburrara-ngarluma''
* ''Madoitja'' (perhaps)
Notes and references
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia
Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia
Extinct languages of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
History of Western Australia
Ngayarda languages