The Njunga or Nyunga are an indigenous
Noongar
The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...
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 ...
.
Name
''Njunga/nyunga'' reflects a root (''njoŋa/njuŋa/njuŋar'') that signifies 'man'. They adopted the term, perhaps defensively, in response to a number of tribes who scorned people who refused to undergo circumcision.
Country
Njunga traditional lands encompassed some , running along and about 30 miles inland of the
Southern coastal area of Western Australia. The coastal line ran from
Young River east to
Israelite Bay
Israelite Bay is a bay and locality on the south coast of Western Australia.
Situated in the Shire of Esperance local government area, it lies east of Esperance and the Cape Arid National Park, within the Nuytsland Nature Reserve and the Grea ...
. One point of intertribal dispute between the Njunga and their
Ngadjunmaia
The Ngadju are an indigenous Australian people of the Goldfields-Esperance region of the Western Australia.
Country
Ngadju traditional land took in some , running south from Goddard Creek to Mount Ragged, Israelite Bay and Point Malcolm. The l ...
neighbours lay over the area between Point Malcolm and a place called 'Ka:pkidjakidj, somewhere around the northern end of Israelite Bay. Both claimed this as their tribal land.
History
The Njunga once, before contact with whites, formed part of the
Wudjari
The Wudjari were an Aboriginal Australian people of the Noongar cultural group of the southern region of Western Australia.
Country
The Wudjari's traditional lands are estimated to have extended over some , encompassing the southern coastal are ...
people, but split off over the issue of whether or not to adopt the rite of circumcision, which was being forcefully advocated by the Ngadjunmaia. The Njunga were those Wudjari who decided to import circumcision, though they stopped short of adopting the ancillary measure of
subincision. Over time, they Njunga came to consider themselves distinct from their Wudjari kin, and, when asked by ethnographers, both the Wudjari and Njunga insisted that they had become separate tribal realities.
The Njunga eventually relocated to
New Norcia
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
where
Bishop Rosendo Salvado had taken them. Salvado had taken out British citizenship in order to have the right to defend aboriginal people in courts, where they were often charged with killing sheep and other livestock. Castholic doctrine, as enunciated by St
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...
, does not consider taking out of necessity from others their property as theft, particularly since shepherds drove away the kangaroo on which natives depended.
A number of people descended from these Njunga now live at
Goomalling.
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia
Great Southern (Western Australia)