The Wurla, also written Ola, or Waladjangarri, 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 ...

people 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 ...

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

Though often written ''Ola'', Wurla is now considered the recommended transcription for this tribal ethnonym.

Country

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 ...

estimated their tribal grounds as extending over about . The Wurlu occupied the northern side of the Wunaamin Miliwundi Range. They lay east of the Isdell Range, and their reach extended northwards as far as the Phillips Range and the headwaters of the Hann and upper Fitzroy rivers. To the east, their territory ran up to Bluff Face Range, in a line that linked directly Elgee Cliffs and the Burramundy Range. According to information gathered by Joseph Birdsell, the Wurla in penetrated down the Chapman and Durack rivers to Karunjie severed the traditional links between the

Ngarinjin The Ngarinyin or Ngarinjin are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Their language, Ngarinyin, is also known as Ungarinyin. When referring to their traditional lands, they refer to themselves as Wilinggi ...

and Gija.

Social organisation

The Wurla were divided into clans. * ''Wardia''. A Wurla horde resident around

Ellenbrae Ellenbrae, also commonly referred to as Ellenbrae Station, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Western Australia. It is situated about south of Wyndham and north of Halls Creek not far off the Gibb River Road. The Dur ...

Alternative names

* ''Wo:la, Wola, Wula'' * ''Waladjangari, Woladjangari'' * ''Woolaja'' * ''Walandjari'' * ''Wolmardai'' * ''

Waringari Ngardi, also spelt Ngarti or Ngardilj, is an Australian Aboriginal language that is considered moribund. It was previously thought to be an alternative name for the Bunara language, but these are now classified as separate languages. It was/is ...

'' (of

, an

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, ...

, also applied to the Gija, implying cannibalistic practices) * ''Oladjau'' (

Miriwung Miriwoong, also written Miriuwung and Miriwung, is an Aboriginal Australian language which today has fewer than 20 fluent speakers, most of whom live in or near Kununurra in Western Australia. All of the fluent speakers are elderly and the Mi ...

exonym for several peoples who spoke varieties of the Ngarinyin language). * ''Ngarangari, Ngalangari, Ngaiangari'' ("those who dwell on the tops of the range.") * ''Wardia''

Notes

Citations

Sources

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