Unggumi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Unggumi, also written Ongkomi, are an indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australian.

Country[]

Norman Tindale estimated that the Unggumi's territorial lands stretched over some 3,800 square miles (9,800 km2), centered on the upper limestone range and plateaus in and around the Leopold Range. They occupied the area south of the Isdell River gorge, as far as the Lennard River and Chestnut Creek. Their western frontier was around the headwaters of the Robinson River. To the south east, they hunted as far as the Richenda River.[1]

History[]

Tindale speculated on the basis of the nuances in their terminology for the cardinal points, that at one time the Unggumi had been a coastal people who had been driven by tribal pressures to seek sanctuary on the hard, inaccessible terrain of the upland ranges.[2] The Ngarinjin lay northeast, the Wurla directly east, the Bunuba south-east the Nyigina directly south, while the Warrwa, and the Umiida lay on their western flank, between them and the sea.

Alternative names[]

  • Ong Komi.
  • Wongkomi.
  • Ongaranjan.
  • Ungumi, Ungami.
  • Ngarangari. – Ngarinjin exonym meaning 'top-dwelling', referring to their living on the top of the range.[3]
  • Wunggumic, Ngarangari, Ong, Komi, Wongkami, Wongkomiy. (language names)[4]

Notes[]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Tindale 1974, p. 255.
  2. ^ Tindale 1974, p. 49.
  3. ^ Tindale 1974, p. 2.
  4. ^ Austkin.

Sources[]

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