The Maiawali, other wise known as the ''Mayuli,'' 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 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_ ...
.
Language
The Maiawali spoke a dialect of
Pitta Pitta
The Pitapita or Pitta Pitta are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland.
Language
They spoke Pitta Pitta language, Pitapita, one of the Karnic languages, which remains the best described dialect of an eastern group that compri ...
. A number of brief records of their language were made by early European settlers in their area.
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 ...
estimated their tribal lands as covering , taking in the areas of the
Diamantina River
The Diamantina River is a major river located in Central West Queensland and the far north of South Australia.
The river was named by William Landsborough in 1866 for Lady Diamantina Bowen (née Roma), wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Govern ...
, from
Davenport Downs and the
Diamantina lakes north t
Old Cork and the land fro
the Mayne Riverto Mount Vergemont. Their westerly limits were at Spring Vale. To their southeast the territory went as far as Farrars Creek. Connemara and Brighton Downs were part of Maiawali lands.
Social customs
Males were initiated into full manhood by undergoing subincision at the Mika ceremony. Hill described the technique in the following terms:
One of the elders will lie face downwards on the ground, a slight excavation having been made there to receive the stomach, the initiate is placed upon this individual's back, face up, his limbs are placed in position by various assistants, one of whom sits astride the initiate's body and holds the initiate's penis, while the actual operator makes a superficial incision through the skin from the external meatus down to near the scrotal pouch in line with the Median Raphe; a deeper incision is next made with a stone knife which opens up the canal as it is pushed onwards. Haemorrhage is prevented by the initiate squatting over some smoking embers and heated charcoal placed in a small excavation in the ground beneath him, the wound being subsequently smeared with greased and powdered charcoal. For the next two or three weeks they will always try and arrange matters so as to micturate close to or over some smoking ashes; after the operation the initiate is looked on as an adult man'
History of contact
Mary Durack
Dame Mary Durack (20 February 1913 – 16 December 1994) was an Australian author and historian. She wrote ''Kings in Grass Castles'' and ''Keep Him My Country''.
Childhood
Mary Durack, born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Michael Patrick ...
, writing of the pastoral empires staked out by her grandfather
Patrick Durack
Patrick Durack (March 1834 – 20 January 1898) was a pastoral pioneer in Western Australia.
His family were struggling tenant farmers from Magherareagh near Scarriff in County Clare, Ireland, who moved from Ireland to New South Wales in 1853. ...
and
John Costello in the 1870s, lists the tribal territories of the Maiawali among the Costello took over.
Writing in 1901, Sid Hill of Brighton Downs remarked that the Maiawali made excellent stockmen, and estimated that their numbers were still around 500, though rapidly diminishing due, in his view, to the devastating impact of venereal disease, opium smoking, tobacco, and what, regarding the males,
Charles Sturt
Charles Napier Sturt (28 April 1795 – 16 June 1869) was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from Sydney and la ...
called "the terrible rite" (
subincision
Penile subincision is a form of genital modification or mutilation consisting of a urethrotomy, in which the underside of the penis is incised and the urethra slit open lengthwise, from the urethral opening (meatus) toward the base. The slit can ...
), and among the females o
introcision
Native title
The descendants of the Maiawali and
Karuwali
The Karuwali were an indigenous people of the state of Queensland.
Country
Norman Tindale estimated that the Karuwali's lands extended over some of territory. This took in the area about Farrars Creek near Connemara southwards to Beetoota, Had ...
underwrote an agreement regarding mining rights in the area south west of Winton covering .
Alternative names
* ''Maiali.''
* ''Majawali.''
* ''Mailly.''
* ''Myall, Myallee.''
* ''Myoli.''
* ''Miorli.''
* ''Majuli'' (error)
* ''Puruga.'' (lit.''penis people'', an
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, ...
reflecting their adoption of circumcision).
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Queensland