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 ...
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
Though often written ''Ola'', Wurla is now considered the recommended transcription for this 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 ...
.
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
Joseph Benjamin Birdsell (March 30, 1908 – March 5, 1994) of Harvard University and UCLA was an anthropologist who studied Aboriginal Australians.
Early life
Born in South Bend, Indiana, Birdsell earned his degrees at the Massachusetts Institut ...
, 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 Wilinggin ...
and
Gija.
Social organisation
The Wurla were divided into clans.
* ''Wardia''. A Wurla
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 ...
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
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 Wilinggin ...
, 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 Mir ...
exonym for several peoples who spoke varieties of the
Ngarinyin language
The Ngarinyin language, also known as Ungarinjin and Eastern Worrorran, is an endangered Australian Aboriginal language of the Kimberley region of Western Australia spoken by the Ngarinyin people.
Classification and naming
Ngarinyin is one o ...
).
* ''Ngarangari, Ngalangari, Ngaiangari'' ("those who dwell on the tops of the range.")
* ''Wardia''
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia