The Nyawigi people, also spelt Nyawaygi, Nywaigi, or Nawagi, are an
Aboriginal Australian people whose original country was around
Halifax Bay
Halifax Bay is a region located around a bay in the Coral Sea, situated on the Australian coast in Far North Queensland. It is bordered by the town of Ingham to the north, city of Townsville to the south and Great Palm Island off the coast to ...
in
Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf C ...
.
They may also have inhabited
Orpheus Island
Orpheus Island National Park is a national park on Orpheus Island, in North Queensland, Australia. The Aboriginal (possibly Nyawaygi) name for this island is Goolboddi Island. It is one of the Palm Islands group, northwest of Brisbane, as is ...
.
Language
An early record suggested that the ''Nyawa''-(Nowa) in this term denoted 'no', and comparative linguistics has observed the ''–gi'' form a
comitative suffix
In grammar, the comitative case (; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role (other uses of "with", l ...
, but the last speakers could not confirm this speculative derivation of the ethnonym. One of the last to be interviewed was a centenarian, Long Heron.
Country
The Nywaigi are a coastal people occupying 50 miles of coastland to a depth of some 15 kilometres. To their north, bounded on the west by the Toobanna, Frances Creek and Waterview Creek, over the
Herbert River at
Halifax and
Ingham, were the
Biyaygiri
The Biyaygiri, also known as Bandjin, were an Aboriginal Australian people of northern Queensland.
Language
The language of the Biyaygiri was Biyay, a dialect of Warrgamay. The last speaker of the language was Nora Boyd, who enabled Robert Dixo ...
. To the west was
Warrongo country. Their southern boundary lay at the Seaview Range. Other neighbours include the
Warrgamay. In
Norman Tindale's estimation, the total extent of their land was in the area to the southwest of the
Herbert River, mainly on the
rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
ed
high Sea View Range, running southeast as far as Harveyside and the
Reid River. The Warrgamay lay around the
sclerophyll forest
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...
to their east on the coast, though, according to
Robert M. W. Dixon
Robert Malcolm Ward "Bob" Dixon (born 25 January 1939, in Gloucester, England) is a Professor of Linguistics in the College of Arts, Society, and Education and The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Queensland. He is also Deputy Director o ...
, the Nyawagyi did access part of the sea-coast in the vicinity of
Ingham.
Social structure
The Nyawagyi comprised 7 tribes, with the affix ''bara'' indicating belonging, and all probably speaking a distinctive dialect.
* ''Ikelbara.''
* ''Doulebara.''
* ''Mungulbara.''
* ''Mandambara.''
* ''Karabara.''
* ''Bungabara.''
* ''Yoembara.''
The Nyawagyi had four sections: (a)''wungu''; (b)''gurguɽu''; (c) ''gurgila=gurgiŋ''; (d) ''gaɽbawuɽu''. The marriage rules laid down that
# A ''wungu'' male had to marry a ''gurguɽugan'' woman, their offspring becoming ''gurgila=gurgiŋ''.
# A ''gurguɽu'' male married a ''wungurayŋgan'' to produce ''gaɽbawuɽu''.
# A ''gurgila=gurgiŋ'' male married a ''gaɽbawuɽiyan'', producing ''wungu'' children.
# A ''gaɽbawuɽu'' male married a ''gurgilayŋgan'', and their offspring would be ''gurguɽu.''
Alternative names
* ''Nyawigi''
* ''Geugagi''
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{Authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Queensland
Far North Queensland