The Ngiyampaa people, also spelt Ngyiyambaa, Nyammba and Ngemba, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of New South Wales. The generic name refers to an aggregation of three groups, the Ngiyampaa, the Wangaaypuwan, and the Wayilwan, respectively clans of a larger Ngiyampaa nation.
Language
Their language consisted of varieties of Ngiyampaa, which was composed of two dialects, Ngiyambaa Wangaaypuwan and Wayilwan Ngiyambaa. The
Wangaaypuwan (with
wangaay) people are so called because they use
wangaay to say "no", as opposed to the Ngiyampaa in the Macquarie Marshes and towards
Walgett, who were historically defined separately by colonial ethnographers as
Wayilwan, so-called because their word for "no" was
wayil. The distinction between Ngiyampaa, Wangaaypuwan, and Wayilwan traditionally drawn, and sanctioned by the classification of
Norman Tindale, may rest upon a flawed assumption of marked "tribal" differences based on Ngiyampaa linguistic discriminations between internal groups or clans whose word for "no" varied.
Country
According to Tindale's estimation, Ngiyampaa tribal lands (
ngurrampaa, "country") extended over some in the territory, much of it
peneplain, lying south of the south bank of the Barwon and
Darling River rivers, from Brewarrina to Dunlop. Their area included
Yanda County down to the source of
Mulga Creek, and took in the
Bogan River. The
Weilwan were on their southeastern flank, the
Wangaibon southwest while the
Gamilaraay were to the northeast and the
Paakantyi to their west and northwest.
Mount Grenfell, some northwest of Cobar, is an important site for the Ngiyampaa people, who were barred from accessing it until the 1970s.
Group classifications
A geographical distinction regarding the homeland camping world (
ngurrampaa) is attested between three groups, all inhabiting areas devoid of permanent watercourses.
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(a) pilaarrkiyalu ('woodlanders'. Lit.'belar people') to the east.
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(b) nhiilyikiyalu (Acacia loderi tree people) a westerly group who formerly camped northwest of the ngurrampaa, around Marfield station.
These two groups are collectively referred to as drylanders.
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(c) karulkiyalu or 'stone people', those associated with the stony terrain north of the Ngiyampaa's camping world.
A further distinction was drawn between the above three groups and two groups of river people whose descendants now dwell to the east and west of the ngurrampaa. These are the
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(d) kaliyarrkiyalu (people of the Lachlan River ( kaliyarr)
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(e) paawankay (people of the Darling River).
History of contact
In 1914 a regional newspaper stated that there had been a massacre in 1859 of around 300 Ngiyampaa at Hospital Creek, close to
Brewarrina.
Some words
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ngurram-paa ('camp-world', therefore homeland)
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ngurrangkiyalu (housewife)
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purrpa (school for making men)
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waaway (Rainbow Serpent)
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wirringan (Cleverman)
Notes
Citations
Sources
