Koa people

Tasaku Tsunoda and Gavan Breen have speculated that the ethnonym Koa may derive from a word *guwa meaning 'west'.{{sfn|Tsunoda|2012|p=248}}

Walter Roth thought that the Koa language had affinities with that of the Maiawali, forming a linguistic bridge between it and the languages spoken by the Wanamara and Maithakari.{{sfn|Roth|1897|p=42}} Like many other peoples of the area, they had an extensive sign language, indicating a large number of meanings by gestures.{{sfn|Roth|1897|pp=70–90}}

In Norman Tindale's estimation, the Koa's tribal territory ranged over about {{convert|10,000|mi2|km2}}. Taking the headwaters of Diamantina as the centre, they extended north as far as Kynuna. Their western boundary lay around Middleton Creek, while to the east, their frontier was at Winton and Sesbania. Their southern limits were around Cork.{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=175}}

Neither circumcision nor subincision played any part in the Koa's initiatory rites into manhood.{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=175}} At least one Koa Bora ground, a gibber clearing threaded with portolaca, used to exist close to the homestead on Carisbrooke Station, southwest of Winton.{{sfn|May|2011}}

Comparatively little is known of the Koa, and, in one modern tradition of whites in the area, they just 'melted away' when Europeans began to settle in their territory.{{sfn|May|2011}}

In 1998 grazier Noel Kennedy applied to the Federal Court to have his property Castle Hill declared to be free of native title. This was challenged by the descendants of the Koa the following year,{{sfn|Queensland|2000}} in a counterclaim for native title to the Castle Hill Pastoral Holding and the Bladensburg National Park in the Shire of Winton. In mid-2002 a Federal Court declared that the Koa claim did not apply to Kennedy's pastoral lands because the Koa could not demonstrate continuity of cultural practices in that area over the last half-century.{{sfn|ABC|2002}} In 2015, a further claim to title was made by the Koa,{{sfn|NNTT|2015}} and on 6 October 2021 the Federal Court of Australia recognised the Koa people as native title holders of land and waters covering 31,400 square kilometres.{{Cite web|last=Barry|first=Derek|date=2021-10-06|title=Koa people win Winton region native title claim|url=https://www.northweststar.com.au/story/7459179/koa-people-win-winton-region-native-title-claim/|access-date=2021-11-06|website=The North West Star|language=en-AU}}

• Goa
• Goamulgo
• Coa
• Coah
• Guwa{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=175}}

• mikamo (wild dog or dingo)
• kobba (father)
• yanga (mother)
• witto (white man){{sfn|Curr|1887a|p=14}}
• kungoyi (purslane/pigweed)
• tundooroola (acicular-tip spear){{sfn|Roth|1897|pp=92, 146}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|35em}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Tribal dialect near Kynuna

| last = Anon | first = Coah

| journal = Australian Anthropological Journal

| location = Sydney

| year = 1897 | volume = 1 | issue = 3 | pages = 16–17

}}

• {{Cite book| title = The History of Australian Discovery and Colonisation

| last = Bennett | first = Samuel

| author-link = Samuel Bennett

| year = 1867

| publisher = Hanson and Bennett | location = Sydney

| url = https://archive.org/download/historyaustrali01benngoog/historyaustrali01benngoog.pdf

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Court rules property free of native title

| work = ABC News

| url = http://www.abc.net.au/site-archive/rural/news/stories/s581966.htm

| date = 14 June 2002

| ref = {{harvid|ABC|2002}}

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = Diamantina River, Middleton Creek,-The Goa tribe

| last = Curr | first = Edward

| year = 1887a

| title = The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent

| editor-last = Curr | editor-first = Edward Micklethwaite | editor-link = Edward Micklethwaite Curr

| volume = 3 | pages = 14–15

| publisher = J. Ferres | location = Melbourne

| chapter-url = https://archive.org/download/australianracei02currgoog/australianracei02currgoog.pdf

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = head of Diamantina

| last = Curr | first = Montagu

| year = 1887b

| title = The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent

| editor-last = Curr | editor-first = Edward Micklethwaite | editor-link = Edward Micklethwaite Curr

| volume = 3 | pages = 12–13

| publisher = J. Ferres | location = Melbourne

| chapter-url = https://archive.org/download/australianracei02currgoog/australianracei02currgoog.pdf

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = Western River

| last = Haines | first = John

| year = 1887

| title = The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent

| editor-last = Curr | editor-first = Edward Micklethwaite | editor-link = Edward Micklethwaite Curr

| volume = 3 | pages = 16–17

| publisher = J. Ferres | location = Melbourne

| chapter-url = https://archive.org/download/australianracei02currgoog/australianracei02currgoog.pdf

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Koa People (QC2015/007)

| publisher = National Native Title Tribunal

| url = http://www.nntt.gov.au/searchRegApps/NativeTitleClaims/Pages/details.aspx?NTDA_Fileno=QC2015/007

| date = 16 July 2015

| ref = {{harvid|NNTT|2015}}

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Goa dialect, Diamantina River, Queensland.

| last = Lamb | first = E. C.

| journal = Science of Man

| location = Sydney

| year = 1899a | volume = 2 | issue = 3 | page = 42

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Goa dialect, Diamantina River, Queensland.

| last = Lamb | first = E. C.

| journal = Science of Man

| location = Sydney

| year = 1899b | volume = 2 | issue = 9 | pages = 154–155

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Goa and Myalli language

| last = Lamb | first = E. C.

| journal = Science of Man

| location = Sydney

| year = 1904 | volume = 7 | issue = 3 | page = 27

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Aboriginal languages of eastern Australia compared

| last = Lauterer | first = J.

| journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland

| location = Brisbane

| year = 1897 | volume = 12 | pages = 11–16

| doi = 10.5962/p.351257 | s2cid = 257134113 | url = https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13873565

| doi-access = free

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Digging the digs in The Outback

| last = May | first = David

| newspaper = The Australian

| url = http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/travel-old/digging-the-digs-in-the-outback/news-story/59ed608d63d173cea6264d5315e29b0e?sv=2a236adc547d11d15d6b446bdf29cb11

| date = 16 October 2011

}}

• {{Cite news| title = Queensland

| year = 2000

| publisher = Australasian Legal Information Institute

| url = http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/NativeTitleNlr/2000/21.pdf

| ref = {{harvid|Queensland|2000}}

}}

• {{Cite book| title = Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines

| last = Roth | first = W. E.

| author-link = Walter Roth

| year = 1897

| publisher = Edmund Gregory, Government Printer | location = Brisbane

| url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924029890328

| format = PDF

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = Koa (QLD)

| last = Tindale | first = Norman Barnett

| author-link = Norman Tindale

| year = 1974

| title = Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names

| publisher = Australian National University Press

| chapter-url = http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/koa.htm

| isbn = 978-0-708-10741-6

}}

• {{Cite book| title = A Grammar of Worrongo

| last = Tsunoda | first = Tasaku

| author-link = Tasaku Tsunoda

| year = 2012

| publisher = Walter de Gruyter

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DAymiemsxeUC&pg=PA248

| isbn = 978-3-110-23877-8

}}

{{refend}}

{{Aboriginal peoples of Queensland}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Aboriginal peoples of Queensland