The Wakabunga are an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.
Language
[edit]Norman Tindale referred to material by two early correspondents, Urquhart and O'Reilley, in a publication by E. M. Curr for details about the Wakabunga and their language, but the word-list is not considered to contain elements of this tongue, about which the general belief is that no information survives. It has been suggested by Barry Blake however,[1] that a word-list compiled in the Wakabunga domain by Curr's brother Montagu Curr,[2] belong to a Mayi dialect. From this it has been inferred that Wakabunga may have belonged to the Mayi language family.
Country
[edit]The Wakabunga traditional lands covered an estimated 4,900 square miles (13,000 km2) in the area of the Upper Leichhardt River and Gunpowder Creek.[3]
People
[edit]According to Norman Tindale they were related to the Kalkatungu.[3] They were crocodile hunters, stalking freshwater crocodiles with spears on the upper Leichhardt.[4]
Alternative names
[edit]- Workabunga
- Workoboongo
- Wakobungo, Waukaboonia
- Waggabundi
- Waggaboonyah
- Kabikabi[3]
Notes
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Blake 1990, p. 52.
- ^ Curr 1886, pp. 318–320.
- ^ a b c Tindale 1974, p. 187.
- ^ Roth 1897, p. 92.
Sources
[edit]- Blake, Barry (1990). "Languages of the Queensland/Northern Territory Border: Updating the classification". In Austin, Peter (ed.). Language and History: Essays in Honour of Luise A. Hercus. Research School of Pacific Studies. pp. 49–65. ISBN 978-0-858-83398-2.
- Curr, Montagu (1886). "Kamilaroi station, Leichardt River" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 318–320.
- Roth, W. E. (1897). Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines (PDF). Brisbane: Edmund Gregory, Government Printer.
- Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Wakabunga (QLD)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
- Urquhart, F.; Joseph, O'Reilley (1886). "Seymour, Templeton and Cloncurry Rivers" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 326–329.