Uutaalnganu


The Night Island Kawadji, or Uutaalnganu, were an Indigenous Australian group of Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland. The name is also used collectively for several tribes in this area, such as the Pontunj / Jangkonj, whose language is unconfirmed.

Name

Kawadji formerly referred to a people, who inhabited Night Island and the coastal strip opposite. It now refers primarily to a modern aggregation of six tribes, collectively known by the same ethnonym kawadji which means 'people of the sandbeach'. These tribes, the Umpithamu/Koko Ompindamo, Pakadji, Yintyingka, Otati, Umpila and Pontunj were the traditional owners and users of the coastal areas east of the Great Dividing Range of northeastern Cape York from Oxford Bay to Princess Charlotte Bay.

Language

The Night Island Kawadji spoke, according to Norman Tindale, Yankonyu, a dialect of the Umpila language spoken by the Umpila and Pontunj, to whom they were closely related.

People

The traditional Kawadji of Night Island were a small population and intermarried with clans of the mainland Barungguan.

Economy

The Night Island Kawadji were known for their skill in building and then employing double-outrigger wooden canoes in adventurous voyages to outlying reefs where they would hunt for dugong, turtles, and the eggs of both sea birds and turtles.

Curiosity

survived a shipwreck of a French merchantman Saint Paul in 1858, when he was abandoned by the crew. He was taken in by the Kawadji/Pama Malngkana, with linguistic and other evidence pointing to the area of the Uutaalnganu. He stayed with them 17 years.

Alternative names

The following list of alternative names refers to the original people of Night Island.
Names of other peoples also called 'Kawadji' -