The Wilawila 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 ...
tribe 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 ...
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
Norman Tindale gave "wilawila" as the proper tribal
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 ...
, but noted that, according to reports by the missionary Theodore Hernández, the same group appeared to bear an alternative ethnonym, namely "Taib", which Tindale took to be a Wilawila
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 ...
.
Country
According to Tindale, the Wilawila's tribal domains extended over , along and around the
Carson
Carson may refer to:
People
*Carson (surname), people with the surname
*Carson (given name), people with the given name
Places
;In the United States
* Carson, California, a city
* Carson Township, Fayette County, Illinois
*Carson, Iowa, a city
* ...
and
middle Drysdale rivers, stretching from Mount Connelly as far south as the
lower Gibb and
Durack rivers.
Social organization
The Wilawila were divided into tribal subgroupings or clans/hordes, of which the following names survive.
* ''Taib'' (Carson river)
* ''Munumbara'' (Headwaters of the
Forrest River)
* ''Kalari'' (Middle Drysdale River)
* ''Andedja'' (Southern tributaries of upper Forrest River)
* ''Piarngongo'' (Mount Beatrice)
Tindale also speaks of a Wilawila group, the ''Tjawurungari/Tawandjangango,'' on the
Osborne Islands, speaking a lighter dialect of the language spoken by the
Kambure.
Alternative names
* ''Andedja''
* ''Andidja, Andadja''
* ''Kalari''
* ''Karunjie''
* ''? Kundjanan, Kandjanan''
* ''Munumbara''
* ''Munumburu''
* ''Piarngongo''
* '' Taib''
* ''Taibange'' (Taib member)
* ''? Ullumbuloo''
* ''Wular'' (language name)
* ''Wulu''
Source:
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{Authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia