Misplaced Pages

#385614

18-518: Three languages are spoken among the Mirrar or Mirarr clan group, who are prominent in matters relating to looking after the traditional lands. The majority speak Kundjeyhmi , while others speak Gaagudju and others another language. Aboriginal peoples have occupied the Kadadu area for about 65,000 years. The Macassans from Sulawesi had been in contact for trade purposes for centuries before

36-530: A particular linguistic group that it may be returned to if found abandoned. Records show that the implement began to be used about 5,000 years ago, although the Mungo Man remains from at least 43,000 years ago show severe osteoarthritis in the left elbow associated with the use of a woomera. It is still used today in some remote areas of Australia. Like spears and boomerangs , woomeras were traditionally used only by men. Some woomeras, especially those used in

54-460: A special language called kundangwok , which is specific to each particular clan, must be employed. NOTE: Three languages are spoken among the Mirrar or Mirarr clan group, apart from English. The majority speak Kundjeyhmi, while others speak Gaagudju and others another language. The Kunwinjku social system was analysed in detail in a 1970 monograph by Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt . Like

72-502: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Woomera (spear-thrower) A woomera is an Australian Aboriginal wooden spear -throwing device. Similar to an atlatl , it serves as an extension of the human arm, enabling a spear to travel at a greater speed and force than possible with only the arm. The word "woomera" comes from the Dharug language of the Eora people of

90-485: Is considered an endangered dialect, with young speakers increasingly switching to English, Aboriginal English , Kunwinjku and Australian Kriol . Kundjeyhmi has a number of lexical and grammatical features that differ from the larger Kunwinjku and Kuninjku dialects. In June 2015, the then Gundjeihmi dialect group officially adopted standard Kunwinjku orthography, meaning it would in future be spelt Kundjeyhmi . This Australian Aboriginal languages -related article

108-543: Is disturbed by noise. In Dreaming narratives, when Ngalyod surges from the earth to devour some ancestral species, it does so because a taboo has been violated, and the act sanctifies the site. Kundjeyhmi dialect Kundjeyhmi (spelt Gundjeihmi until 2015) is a dialect of Bininj Kunwok , an Australian Aboriginal language . The Aboriginal people who speak Kundjeyhmi are Bininj people, who live primarily in Kakadu National Park . Kundjeyhmi

126-700: Is human being, Aboriginal vs non-Aboriginal person, and also "man" in opposition to "woman". "Bininj" is a word in the Kunwok language, often referred to by its dominant dialect Kunwinjku . Their territory extends from Kakadu National Park to the west, the Arafura Sea to the north, the Blyth River to the east, and the Katherine region to the south. The traditional lands of the Bininj were located west of

144-516: Is much diversity in design. Some versions have one end that is 7.6 cm (3.0 in) wide and possessing a hollow, curved cross-section not unlike an airfoil, while the other is more pointed and has a hook. Other versions used in northern Australia are less than 2.5 cm (0.98 in) wide, made of flat wood, with a wooden point angled back along the flat length of the woomera, fixed with Spinifex wax. Some woomera were traditionally decorated with incised or painted designs that indicated belonging to

162-685: The Arnhem Plateau , and eastwards to the Liverpool River and its tributary the Mann River, and Cadell river districts. The classification, encompassing the mutually intelligible languages, respectively Kunwinjku, Kuninjku, Kundjeyhmi, Manyallaluk Mayali, Kundedjnjenghmi , and two varieties of Kune , was made by Nicholas Evans . Their word for Europeans is balanda , a loan-word from Macassan traders, in whose language it meant "Hollanders". In addressing djang spirits (see below)

180-629: The Goomadeer River , north around the King and Cooper Rivers, south towards the East Alligator River , and extending to Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) . A large part of Kakadu National Park, including areas where Bininj Kunwok is spoken, was returned to Aboriginal ownership in 2022. Bininj Kunwok refers to six closely related languages and dialects, spoken from Kakadu National Park , southwards to Pine Creek and Manyallaluk , across

198-566: The Sydney basin. The name was adopted for the town of Woomera, South Australia , founded in 1947 as the home of the Anglo-Australian Long Range Weapons Establishment, also known as the "Woomera Rocket Range" and now called RAAF Woomera Range Complex . The woomera is between 61 and 91 cm (24 and 36 in) in length. It is a left handed tool. Like many Australian Aboriginal tools, there

SECTION 10

#1732773248386

216-413: The triodia plant. This sharp tool had many uses, such as cutting up game or other food and wood. It is supposed that the woomera could be used as a shield for protection against spears and boomerangs. The woomera is held in one hand while the other hand places the butt of the spear on the woomera's hook; the hollow curved shape facilitates this alignment without looking. The woomera effectively lengthens

234-666: The Aboriginal peoples generally of the Western Arnhem, land, the Bininj believed in the primordial creative function of a Rainbow serpent , which is generally called Ngalyod which has lineaments more suggestive of the feminine than masculine. It came to Australia from the sea northeast of the Cobourg Peninsula When Baldwin Spencer visited the area and was a guest at Cahill's homestead at Oenpelli, he picked up one version which spoke of

252-537: The arrival of white civilization. They sailed down to exchange a variety of their goods for trepang , and the impact of their presence is evidenced by the retention in some Bininj Kunwok dialects of a few dozen foreign loan words from the language of these traders. They were depicted by local artists in the Indigenous Australian rock art still conserved in a variety of sites around the Mann River. The first recorded European penetration of these territories

270-421: The central and western Australian deserts , were multi-purpose tools. Often shaped like long narrow bowls, they could be used for carrying water-soaked vegetable matter (which would not spill and could later be sucked for its moisture) as well as small food items such as little birds or seeds. Many woomeras had a sharp stone cutting edge called a tula adze attached to the end of the handle with black gum from

288-563: The same figure as being called Numereji Legend has it coming from the north, full of spirit-children, and settling at a point called Coopers Creek on the East Alligator River, she transformed her children into men, creating waterholes to cater to their thirst, supplying men with spears and woomera , and women with dilly bags and digging sticks , while endowing both with intelligence and their senses. She swallows those who infringe her laws, and drowns children who cry, since she

306-436: The thrower's arm, greatly increasing the velocity of the spear. Correcting for the game animal's lateral dodging is accomplished by tilting the wing-shape woomera during the throw for last-second corrections. The kinetic energy of a spear launched from a woomera has been calculated as four times that of an arrow launched from a compound bow . Different Aboriginal groups had different shapes and styles of woomera. For example,

324-672: Was undertaken by Francis Cadell who reached the Kuninjku territory on the Liverpool river. The Liverpool area was surveyed by David Lindsay on behalf of the government in 1884. Rock art known as the Dynamic Figures , referring to a particular series of works in Mirrar country, was described by art historian George Chaloupka and is often referred to when writing about rock art in Arnhem Land. The literal meaning of Bininj

#385614