Narcisse Pelletier (photographie de Peigné)

The Uutaalnganu people, also known as Night Island Kawadji, 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 Islands ...

group of

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

in northern

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_ ...

. The name is also used collectively for several peoples in this area, such as the Pontunj / Jangkonj (Yanganyu), whose language is unconfirmed.

Name

''Kawadji'' formerly referred to a people who inhabited Night Island and the coastal strip opposite. It now refers primarily to a modern aggregation of six peoples, collectively known by the same

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

''kawadji'' which means "people of the sandbeach" (''pama malnkana''). These groups, the Umpithamu/Koko Ompindamo,

Pakadji The Pakadji people, also known by the southern tribal exonym as the Koko Yao (Kuuku Yau), are an Aboriginal Australian group of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. The ethnonym ''Koko Yao'' is said literally to mean " talk, speech" (''kok ...

Yintyingka The Yintyingka, now extinct, were an Indigenous Australian people of central and eastern Cape York Peninsula. Language The Yintyingka language belonged to the Middle Paman language branch of the Pama-Nyungan language family, and was closely re ...

Otati The Wuthathi, also known as the Mutjati, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. Anthropologist Norman Tindale distinguished the Mutjati from the Otati, whereas AIATSIS treats the two ethnonyms as variants related to ...

, Umpila and Pontunj are the traditional owners and users of the coastal areas east of the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

of northeastern Cape York from Oxford Bay to

Princess Charlotte Bay Princess Charlotte Bay is a large bay on the east coast of Far North Queensland at the base of Cape York Peninsula, 350 km north northwest of Cairns. Princess Charlotte Bay is a part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and it is a habit ...

History

The traditional Kawadji of Night Island were a small population and intermarried with clans of the mainland

Barungguan The Barungguan are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of Northern Queensland. The name is associated with three languages: Ganganda, Umpithamu and Morrobolam. Name The anthropologist Donald Thomson classified them (spea ...

. The Night Island Kawadji were known for their skill in building and then employing double-outrigger wooden canoes (''tango'') in adventurous voyages to outlying reefs where they would hunt for dugong, turtles, and the eggs of both sea birds and turtles.

Narcisse Pelletier Narcisse Pelletier (1 January 1844 – 28 September 1894), born in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie in the Vendée was a French sailor. He was abandoned in 1858 at the age of 14 on the Cape York Peninsula, in Australia, during the dry season (late Septem ...

survived a shipwreck of a French merchantman Saint Paul in 1858, when he was abandoned by the crew. He was taken in by the Kawadji/''Pama Malngkana'', with linguistic and other evidence pointing to the area of the Uutaalnganu. He stayed with them for 17 years.

Language

The Night Island Kawadji spoke, according to Norman Tindale, ''Yankonyu'', a dialect of the

Umpila language Umpila is an Aboriginal Australian language, or dialect cluster, of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. It is spoken by about 100 Aboriginal people, many of them elderly. Geographic distribution The land territory associated wi ...

spoken by the Umpila and Pontunj, to whom they were closely related.

Native title

On 25 November 2021, of land on the eastern side of the

was handed back to the people, at the same time as was awarded to the

Kuuku Ya'u The Pakadji people, also known by the southern tribal exonym as the Koko Yao (Kuuku Yau), are an Aboriginal Australian group of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. The ethnonym ''Koko Yao'' is said literally to mean " talk, speech" (''koko ...

peoples, in a native title claim that was lodged seven years prior. The landmark ruling was delivered by Justice

Debra Mortimer Debra Sue Mortimer is an Australian judge. She was born in New Zealand but has practised law in Australia. She has been a judge of the Federal Court of Australia since 2013, having previously been a Senior Counsel practising at the Victorian Bar ...

of the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

, sitting at the

Supreme Court of Queensland The Supreme Court of Queensland is the highest court in the Australian State of Queensland. It was formerly the Brisbane Supreme Court, in the colony of Queensland. The original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court allows its trial division to he ...

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

Alternative names

The following alternative names refer to the original people of Night Island: * ''Kawadji'' (This term was also an exonym used by the

Kaantju The Kaantyu people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula in north Queensland. They live in the area around the present-day town of Coen. Most of their traditional tribal land has been taken over for cattle stations. ''K ...

and other tribes within the interior, bearing the general sense of 'east' (''kawai'') * ''Night Island people'' Names of other peoples also called 'Kawadji' - * ''Mälnkänidji'' ( formed from ''malqkan'' (beach) and (''-idja'' (a suffix meaning 'belonging to') * ''Jangkonju'' (a name for their language, shared by the Pontunj) * ''Yankonyu''

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Queensland