Djanga


Djanga, supposedly meaning "white spirits", was the initial name given to Europeans, by indigenous Noongar Australian Aboriginal people of the south west corner of Western Australia.
Traditional people, relating to the human and natural world through complex systems of kin groups, sought to find a way to incorporate Europeans into their cultural understandings. They had observed that European ships came from the west, from the direction of the setting sun, the location, they believed of Kuranup, the land of the departed spirits of the dead. The fact that Europeans seemed ignorant of Aboriginal language and culture confirmed for the Noongar that these people had somehow forgotten who they were and where they really came from, typical of the spirit of a dead person.
The notion that Europeans were returned spirits of the dead, was reported in the case of George Grey, who was recognised by one Aboriginal woman as the spirit of her dead son. Despite offers from fellow Europeans to drive the woman and her family away, Grey accepted the association, allowing a kenning to be performed by the family in his honour.
The association of Europeans with the spirits of the dead was confirmed by many other characteristics of the first settlement. Europeans odours were found offensive to Aboriginal people, as clothes were frequently not washed for long periods, and bathing of the British settlers was not frequent. The odours were considered similar to the odours that accompanied corpses. Similarly, as indigenous Aboriginal people did not have resistance to many diseases that accompanied the Europeans.
Djanga has not been used for Europeans much since the 1940s. The term used by Noongar and other Western Australian Aboriginal Groups for European settlers now is "Wetjala", derived from the English term "white fella".