Uutaalnganu

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 peoples, collectively known by the same ethnonym kawadji which means "people of the sandbeach" (pama malnkana).{{sfn|Tindale|1974}}{{sfn|Thomson|1933|pp=457–458}} These groups, the Umpithamu/Koko Ompindamo, Pakadji, Yintyingka, Otati, Umpila and Pontunj{{sfn|Thomson|1933|pp=456–457}} are 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.{{sfn|Haddon|2011|p=266}}

The traditional Kawadji of Night Island were a small population and intermarried with clans of the mainland Barungguan.{{sfn|Hale|Tindale|1933|p=70}}

The Night Island Kawadji were known for their skill in building and then employing double-outrigger wooden canoes (tango) in adventurous voyages to outlying reefs where they would hunt for dugong, turtles, and the eggs of both sea birds and turtles.{{sfn|Haddon|2011|p=266}}

Narcisse Pelletier 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 for 17 years.{{sfn|Anderson|2018}}

{{main|Kawadji 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.{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=175}}{{sfn|Hale|Tindale|1933|p=70}}

On 25 November 2021, {{cvt|986|km2|abbr=on}} of land on the eastern side of the Cape York Peninsula was handed back to the people, at the same time as {{cvt|1202|km2|abbr=on}} was awarded to the Kuuku Ya'u peoples, in a native title claim that was lodged seven years prior. The landmark ruling was delivered by Justice Debra Mortimer of the Federal Court of Australia, sitting at the Supreme Court of Queensland in Cairns.{{cite web | last=Richardson | first=Holly | title=Historic ruling hands massive tract of Cape York land back to traditional owners | website=ABC News| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation | date=25 November 2021 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-25/cape-york-handback-court-ruling/100649138 | access-date=4 January 2022}}{{cite web | title=National Native Title Register Details: QCD2021/007 - Uutaalnganu (Night Island) determination| website=National Native Title Tribunal | url=http://www.nntt.gov.au/searchRegApps/NativeTitleRegisters/Pages/NNTR_details.aspx?NNTT_Fileno=QCD2021/007 | access-date=4 January 2022}}{{cite web | title=National Native Title Register Details:QCD2021/006 - Kuuku Ya'u| website=National Native Title Tribunal | url=http://www.nntt.gov.au/searchRegApps/NativeTitleRegisters/Pages/NNTR_details.aspx?NNTT_Fileno=QCD2021/006 | access-date=4 January 2022}}

The following alternative names refer to the original people of Night Island:

• Kawadji (This term was also an exonym used by the Kaantju and other tribes within the interior, bearing the general sense of 'east' (kawai).)
• Night Island people{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=175}}

Names of other peoples also called Kawadji:

• Mälnkänidji (formed from malqkan (beach) and -idja (a suffix meaning 'belonging to'))
• Jangkonju (a name for their language, shared by the Pontunj)
• Yankonyu

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|20em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{Cite book| title = Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits

| last = Haddon | first = A. C.

| author-link = Alfred Cort Haddon

| year = 2011 | orig-year = First published 1935

| volume = 1

| publisher = Cambridge University Press

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XpMczQt7_BgC&pg=PA266

| isbn = 978-0-521-17986-7

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Aborigines of Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland

| last1 = Hale | first1 = H. M.

| last2 = Tindale | first2 = N.B.

| author2-link = Norman Tindale

| journal = Records of the South Australian Museum

| location = Adelaide

| year = 1933 | volume = 5 | issue = 1 | pages = 64–116

| url = https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40996868

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = The Sandbeach People and Dugong hunters of Eastern Cape York Peninsula: property in land and sea country

| last1 = Rigsby | first1 = Bruce

| last2 = Chase | first2 = Athol

| author1-link = Bruce Rigsby

| year = 2014

| title = Customary marine tenure in Australia

| editor1-last = Peterson | editor1-first = Nicolas

| editor2-last = Rigsby | editor2-first = Bruce | editor2-link = Bruce Rigsby

| publisher = Sydney University Press

| pages = 307–350

| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yr-6AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA311

| isbn = 978-1-743-32389-2

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = Tribes and Totemism in North-East Australia

| last = Sharp | first = R. Lauriston

| author-link = Lauriston Sharp

| journal = Oceania

| volume = 9 | issue = 3 | pages = 254–275

| date = March 1939

| doi = 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1939.tb00232.x | jstor = 40327744

}}

• {{Cite book|title=Pelletier: The Forgotten Castaway of Cape York

| last = Anderson| first = Stephanie

| year =2018

| orig-year = 2009

| publisher = Melbourne Books

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=a0FvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT169

| isbn = 978-1-922-12902-4

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = The Hero Cult, Initiation and Totemism on Cape York

| last = Thomson | first = Donald F.

| author-link = Donald Thomson

| journal = Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

| year = 1933 | volume = 63 | pages = 453–537

| doi = 10.2307/2843801 | jstor = 2843801

}}

• {{Cite journal | title = The Dugong Hunters of Cape York

| last = Thomson | first = Donald F.

| author-link = Donald Thomson

| journal = Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

| volume = 64 | pages = 237–263

| date = July–December 1934

| doi = 10.2307/2843809 | jstor = 2843809

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = Kawadji (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/kawadji.htm

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

}}

{{refend}}

{{Aboriginal peoples of Queensland}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Aboriginal peoples of Queensland