Wilawila Explained

See also: Wilawila language. The Wilawila are an indigenous Australian tribe of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Name

Norman Tindale gave "wilawila" as the proper tribal ethnonym, but noted that, according to reports by the missionary Theodore Hernández, the same group appeared to bear an alternative ethnonym, namely "Taib", which Tindale took to be a Wilawila horde.

Country

According to Tindale, the Wilawila's tribal domains extended over 5300mi2, along and around the Carson and middle Drysdale rivers, stretching from Mount Connelly as far south as the lower Gibb and Durack rivers.

Social organization

The Wilawila were divided into tribal subgroupings or clans/hordes, of which the following names survive.

• Taib (Carson river)
• Munumbara (Headwaters of the Forrest River)
• Kalari (Middle Drysdale River)
• Andedja (Southern tributaries of upper Forrest River)
• Piarngongo (Mount Beatrice)

Tindale also speaks of a Wilawila group, the Tjawurungari/Tawandjangango, on the Osborne Islands, speaking a lighter dialect of the language spoken by the Kambure.

Alternative names

• Andedja
• Andidja, Andadja
• Kalari
• Karunjie
• ? Kundjanan, Kandjanan
• Munumbara
• Munumburu
• Piarngongo
• Taib
• Taibange (Taib member)
• ? Ullumbuloo
• Wular (language name)
• Wulu

Source:

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Web site: AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia . 14 May 2024 . . .
• Social organization of the Drysdale River tribes . Hernández . Theodore . . March 1941a . 11 . 3 . 212–232 . 40327901.
• Children among the Drysdale River Tribes . Hernández . Theodore . . December 1941b . 12 . 2 . 122–133 . 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1941.tb00350.x . 40327939.
• The Forrest River and Lyne River Tribes of North-West Australia: A Report on Field Work . Kaberry . Phyllis M. . Phyllis Kaberry . . June 1935 . 5 . 4 . 408–436 . 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1935.tb00163.x . 40327811.
• Web site: Tindale Tribal Boundaries . . September 2016 . .
• Book: Tindale, Norman Barnett . Wilawila (WA) . 1974 . Norman Tindale . Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names . . http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/wilawila.htm . 20 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200320020206/http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/wilawila.htm . 978-0-708-10741-6.