The Mangarla, or Mangala, 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 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 ...

. The Mangarla people traditionally lived in the north-western area of the Great Sandy Desert, west of the

Karajarri The Karajarri are an Aboriginal Australian people, who once lived south-west of the Kimberleys in the northern Pilbara region, predominantly between the coastal area and the Great Sandy Desert. They now mostly reside at Bidyadanga, south of B ...

people, east of the

Walmajarri The Walmadjari (Walmajarri) people, also known as Tjiwaling and Wanaseka, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Name The two names reflect different Walmadjari preferences. Their western bands accept ...

, with the Juwaliny and Yulparija to the south. Many Mangarla people now live in Jarlmadangah and Bidyadanga.

Mangarla language

The

Mangarla language Mangarla, also spelt Mangala, is a Pama–Nyungan language of Western Australia. It is spoken by the Mangarla people of the north-western area of the Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,

is one of the Marrngu languages of the Pama–Nyungan family. Two dialect varieties of their tongue are attested, ''Kakutu/Kakurtu'' and ''Ngulatu/Ngulartu''. Mangarla is an

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

, with less than 20 native speakers according to a 2002 census. The

Pallottine The Pallottines officially named the Society of the Catholic Apostolate ( la, Societas Apostolatus Catholici), abbreviated SAC is a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right for men in the Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1835 by the Roman C ...

Catholic priest Father Kevin McKelson (1926–2011), known to the 5 tribes whose languages he mastered as ''Japulu'' (father) compiled the first dictionary of the language in 1998, a work which formed the basis for a dictionary co-authored with Albert Burgman in 2005.

History of contact

The Mangarla, like the Walmajarri, Wangkatjungka and

Nyigina The Nyikina people (also spelt Nyigina and Nyikena, and listed as Njikena by Tindale) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They come from the lower Fitzroy River (which they call ''mardoowarra''). ...

. were bundled together by the early white colonizers as a "desert mob" because of the arid territory they lived in. Starting from around 1885, when pastoralists began to use their territory for grazing stock, many men from the Mangarla tribe were rounded up to work as jackaroos, in exchange for an annual pay of, according to native tradition, a pair of boots, a shirt and trousers., a situation that descendants say persisted until the 1967 referendum and constitutional amendment by the Holt Government established the principle of equal pay, after which many lost their jobs.

Native title

In 2014, in a decision handed down by Justice John Gilmour of the Federal Court of Australia, the Nyikina-Mangarla people were granted

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, ...

to of territory extending from the

King Sound King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about long, and averages about in width. The port town ...

through the Fitzoy Valley to the Great Sandy Desert.

Notes and references

Notes

References