The Miwa 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 Kimberley 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 ...

Name

'Miwa' in this area of the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts ...

is used in the sense of 'salt water/sea', indicating peoples near or on the coast. Three different groups, among them the

Yeidji The Yeidji, also spelt Yiiji and other variants, commonly known as Gwini/ Kwini, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of Western Australia, who also self-identify as Balanggarra. Name In contemporary accounts, the Yeidji ...

, have been called ''Miwa'' in this broader sense. Likewise the

Ngarinjin The Ngarinyin or Ngarinjin are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Their language, Ngarinyin, is also known as Ungarinyin. When referring to their traditional lands, they refer to themselves as Wilinggi ...

called the Gija, ''Miwa.'' In this article the word describes the Miya associated with the King Edward River zone specified below.

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 ...

's estimation, the Miya lands extended over . On the coast they lay about the eastern side of Napier Broome Bay, the lower King Edward River and eastwards to about Cape Bernier. Their inland extension reached as far as the vicinity of Mount Connelly, the

Drysdale River Drysdale River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river rises in the Caroline Ranges, flows in a northerly direction and discharges into Napier Broome Bay near Kalumburu. The river contains several permanent pools, ...

and the Barton Plain. It also took in an area of the King George River and ''Manungu'', the Miya name for the range at the headwaters of the Berkeley River. The Miwa were often subsumed, together with the

Wirngir The Wirngir are an indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Country Norman Tindale estimated their territorial extension to range around . They were a coastal people, whose inland borders stopped in the highlands ...

, under a larger ethnonym, ''Walar''.

Alternative names

* ''Konun, Konan, Konin, Gonin.'' * ''Kaianu, Kianu, Kyanoo.'' * ''Murgura (eastern Miwa

horde Horde may refer to: History * Orda (organization), a historic sociopolitical and military structure in steppe nomad cultures such as the Turks and Mongols ** Golden Horde, a Turkic-Mongol state established in the 1240s ** Wings of the Golden Hord ...

) * ''Kuna.'' * ''Kunange, Gunan, Koonange.'' * ''Mande, Manda.'' * ''Pago.'' (

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

at old Drysdale Mission). * ''Bagu, Ba:gu.'' * ''Manungu, Manunggu.'' (toponym) * ''Galumburu.'' (toponym at new Drysdale River Mission) * ''Kalumbura, Caloombooroo.'' * ''Wulanggur.'' (Cape Talbot peninsula toponym and horde name) * ''Ulaqgu.'' * ''Wularjgu.''(

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, ...

) * ''Ulangu.'' * ''Umari (King George River toponym) * ''Pela.'' * ''Boola.'' * ''Pelange''? * ''Walar.'' (snake clan's name).

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia Kimberley (Western Australia)