The Yangkaal, also spelt Yanggal, 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 area of the
Gulf of Carpentaria in the state of
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
, establishe ...
.
Gananggalinda is a variant name of the same group.
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Language
The
Yangkaal language was also known as Yanggaralda, Janggal, Gananggalinda, Nemarang, and other names.
Geoffrey O'Grady
Geoffrey O'Grady (1 January 1928 -29 December 2008) was a professor Emeritus of linguistics whose primary field of specialisation was Australian Aboriginal languages.
Life and career
O'Grady trained as a jackaroo and worked as a stockman at ...
grouped it as a variety of
Yukulta
The Yukulta people, also spelt Jokula, Jukula, and other variants, and also known as Ganggalidda or Gangalidda, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland.
They may be the same as the Yanga group.
Country
Norman Tindale ( ...
within the
Tangkic language family. The implication was that "Yanggal" was simply an alternative name for "Njangga", which is an alternative
ethnonym for the
Yanyula (Yanyuwa), from which the word Yanggal may have derived.
Country
The Yangkaal work over of land, both on
Forsyth Island and the stretch of coastline opposite, on the mainland, running as far west as
Cliffdale Creek
Cliffdale Creek is a creek in Queensland, Australia.
The headwaters of the creek rise at the eastern end of China Wall on the edge of the Barkly Tableland close to the border of the Northern Territory. The creek flows north easterly direction t ...
mainland opposite. Much of the continental coastland used by the Yangkaal was
mangrovial.
David Horton reported in ''
The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, society and culture'' that the traditional lands of the Gananggalinda were near
Bayley Point
Gangalidda is a coastal locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee, Queensland, Australia, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. In the , Gangalidda had a population of 0 people. Bayley Point () is a small blunt point on the coast within the locality ...
and
Point Parker
Point Parker is an isolated place in Queensland on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria opposite Allen Island and south of Mornington Island. The point is distinctive as the coast turns at roughly a right angle at this location.
Transcontine ...
on the coast of the
Gulf of Carpentaria. The Gananggalinda and their neighbours the
Yukulta / Ganggalidda have similar culture and language.
[Horton, David, Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia;1994, Vol. 1, p401.]
Social organisation
The Yangkaal were composed of at least three
kin groups:
* The ''Djo:ara'' (Beche-de-Mer Camp and Bayley (Robert) Island.)
* ''Laraksnja:ra'' (eastern part of Forsyth Island.)
* ''Mara'kalpa'' (western side of Forsyth Island.)
* A clan once resident on Denham Island.
History of contact
The Yangkaal eventually moved to
Mornington Island
Mornington Island, also known as Kunhanhaa, is an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. It is the northernmost and largest of 22 islands that form the Wellesley Islands group. The largest town, ...
, where
Arthur Capell
Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages.
Early life
Capell was born in Newtown, New South Wales ...
briefly interviewed one informant, and obtained information, some of which turned out to be unreliable. He was told that their name for their homeland on Forsyth Island was Nemi, from which he deduced that their language was Nemarang. This misapprehension was corrected by
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist.
Life
Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...
, who explained that this term was the personal name of a Yangkaal person known on the
Mornington Island Mission as Edward Nemie, the latter being a distortion of the missionary's word "name".
Alternative names
* ''Njanggad.''
* ''Janggaral.''
* ''Janggura.''
* ''Janggaralda.''
* ''Jangaralda.'' (
Lardil exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
)
* ''Nemarang'' (recent autonym formed from the English word 'name')
* ''Balumbant.'' ('westerners' as opposed to ''Lilumbant'', used of the Lardiil and
Yokula).
Some words
* ''bidinaŋga.'' (man)
* ''magudaŋga.'' (woman)
* ''ganda.'' (father)
* ''ŋama.'' (mother).
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Queensland