Maduwongga

The Maduwongga (Martu Wangka) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia.

Language

The language spoken by the Maduwongga was supposedly called Kabal.[1]

Country

In Norman Tindale's estimation, the Maduwongga tribal territory extended over some 9,000 square miles (23,000 km2), ranging westwards from Pinjin on Lake Rebecca as far as Mulline, including the area a few miles south of Menzies, where their borders with the Ngurlu ran,[2] over to Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie, Kanowna, Kurnalpi, and Siberia.[1] Ecologically they lived in country marked by mallee Eucalypt species.[3]

However, Tindale's description of this group and country has not stood close examination. In a native title case involving people identifying as Maduwongga, it was found that Tindale's mapping "was probably wrong"[4] and "unreliable".[5] After hearing detailed expert evidence and examining the relevant data, the judge stated: "Inexplicably, Tindale's map of Maduwongga territory does not correspond with his own data collected in 1939 when he spoke to [relevant informants] .... Further, the information given to Tindale [by other informants in 1939 and 1966] ... all but disposes of the notion of Maduwongga country ...".[6] In addition, the judge cites part of the expert evidence, which states: "the 'Maduwongga tribe' is essentially a Tindale creation - a case of what my colleague, Dr Paul Burke, in a very similar context, has called 'cartographic ethnogenesis'.[7] In short, 'Maduwongga' seems to have been a mistake, and the area in question appears likely to have been originally distributed amongst Wangkayi ('Wongi') people (not 'Martu' people) and those who spoke the language which [was] ... recorded as 'Kabul' (... [who Tindale called] 'the Kalamaia') ...".[8]

History

According to oral traditions picked up by ethnographers, the Maduwongga may have moved in from an original homeland further east, and displaced the Kalamaia, westwards beyond Bullabulling.[1]

Alternative names
  • Jindi, Yindi
  • Maduwonga
  • Kabul
  • Julbaritja (Ngurlu exonym for them meaning 'southerners')

Notes

    Citations
    1. Tindale 1974, p. 246.
    2. Tindale 1974, p. 143.
    3. Tindale 1974, p. 252.
    4. FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA. Strickland on behalf of the Maduwongga Claim Group v State of Western Australia [2023] FCA 270 [903]
    5. FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA. Strickland on behalf of the Maduwongga Claim Group v State of Western Australia [2023] FCA 270 [892]
    6. FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA. Strickland on behalf of the Maduwongga Claim Group v State of Western Australia [2023] FCA 270 [904]
    7. Burke, Paul. 2015. 'Cartographic Ethnogenesis: Tindale's Invention of the Jadira Tribe in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia.' Journal of the Anthropological Society of South Australia Volume 39: 102-126.
    8. FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA Strickland on behalf of the Maduwongga Claim Group v State of Western Australia [2023] FCA 270 [885].

    Sources
    • "AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia". AIATSIS.
    • "Tindale Tribal Boundaries" (PDF). Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Western Australia. September 2016.
    • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Maduwongga (WA)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
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