Traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal Tribes around Derby

The Unggarranggu, also traditionally transcribed as Ongkarango, 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 ...

people of the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

region 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 ...

. Along with the Yawijibaya people, they are the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

Buccaneer Archipelago The Buccaneer Archipelago is a group of islands off the coast of Western Australia near the town of Derby in the Kimberley region. The closest inhabited place is Bardi located about from the western end of the island group. , a new marine ...

, off

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, together known as the

Mayala The Yawijibaya, also written Jaudjibaia, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. Along with the Unggarranggu people, they are the traditional owners of Buccaneer Archipelago, off Derby, togeth ...

group for

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

purposes.

Language

The Unggarranggu spoke a Worrorran language. What little is known of it was taken down by Howard Coate in the 1960s.

Country

The Unggarranggu 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 ...

's estimate had a domain extending over roughly , ranging from the northeastern area of

King Sound King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about long, and averages about in width. The port town ...

, the eastern side of Stokes Bay, and reaching north as far as Crawford Bay. They also were present on Helpman Island and those islands of the eastern part of the sound as far as Caffarelli. Their continental extension ran no more than inland.

Society

The Unggarranggu were basically a coastal people dwelling on the mainland, but were on close terms with the more maritime

Umiida The Umiida, also written Umida and Umede, were an indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of north Western Australia. Language The Umiida spoke one of the dialects of the (western) Worrorra language. What little is known of it, and ...

. Like the Umiida they plied rafts fashioned from

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

woods, with which they would sail out to places like the island of Wilima off the mouth of

Meda River The Meda River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river is formed when the Lennard River splits into two channels just north of Mount Marmion, the other channel being the May River. Continuing to flow westward the ri ...

, close to

Warrwa The Warrwa, also spelt Warwa, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Language Warrwa is an eastern Nyulnyulan language, sufficiently closely related to Nyigina to be classified as a dialect of the ...

territory.

Alternative names

* ''Ongkarang.'' * ''0kwata.'' * ''Unggarangi.''

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia