The Yuwaalaraay, also spelt Euahlayi, Euayelai, Eualeyai, Ualarai, Yuwaaliyaay and Yuwallarai, are an Aboriginal Australian people of north-western New South Wales.
Name and language
The
ethnonym Yuwaalaraay derives from their word for "no" (yuwaal) to which a form of the
comitative, -iyaay/ayaay/-araay, is attached.
While AUSTLANG cites Euahlayi, Ualarai, Euhahlayi, and Juwalarai as synonyms for the Gamilaraay language in earlier sources,
According to Robert M. W. Dixon, Ualarai is a Wiradhuric tongue, a dialect ( Yuwaalaraay) of Gamilaraay. The Yuwaalaraay distinguished various kinds of Gamilaraay, telling K. Langloh Parker:
Parker herself worked mainly with a particular Yuwaalaraay subgroup, the Nhunggabarra, whose clan name derives from the word nhungga ('kurrajong tree').
Country
The Yuwaalaraay traditional lands stretch over an estimated . It is on the
Narran River and from the
Narran Wetlands (Terewah) through to
Angledool near the Queensland border. It takes in Walgett to the southeast. Running southwest, it extends from the
Birrie River and
Bokhara River rivers to Brewarrina. The western frontier lies between the
Culgoa River and Birrie rivers.
The northernmost area covered by Yuwaalaraay country extends as far as Dirranbandi, Queensland, where the Culgoa and Balonne rivers meet.
Yuwaalaraay country is rather dry even over winter, which permitted a longer gathering and conservation of seeds as a food resource.
Social organisation
The Yuwaalaraay are organised in terms of
Matrilineality.
Economy
They were proto-
, who used the
of their area, harvesting foods for storage, a practice (called generically konakandi or 'dung food') also found among several other tribes such as the
Iliaura and
Watjarri. The surplus was stored (yarmmara, 'storage') in caves, enabling women to free up their time, since the existence of reserves relieved them of the need to gather in edible foodstuffs every day.
Women and men worked at the harvest. The women would cull the grass heads with their ears, still green, so they could be stacked within a brushwood enclosure that was then set alight. The seeds were winnowed by stirring through the heap with long sticks, and gathered on opossum skins. Then the men took over as threshers, separating the husks by alternately beating and then stamping the seeds laid in two holes, on rectangular the other circular. The refined product then underwent further purifying by employing wiri, 'bark dishes', and jubbil. The resulting seedstock was then packed in skin bags, Once taken out of storage, the seeds were prepared by grinding then, with additions of water, on dajuri millstones and cooking the cakes over ashes. Milling was also done with a nether millstone, jamara, a word that also meant the milled seed itself.
Coolibah eucalypts yielded branches that were piled on hard ground and left to dry until they yielded up their seed which was then milled.
Mythology
Reports on Aboriginal belief systems often drove controversies over whether Aboriginal Australians understood the nature of conception or whether they recognised a supreme deity, one of the criteria for the kind of civilisation Western colonialism promoted. Some maintained they did, in subscribing to a belief in
Baiame.
Andrew Lang asked Mrs Parker what the Yuwaalaraay view was in regard to this. She was told that their word for the "All-Seeing Spirit" was Nurrulburu, and for the "All-Hearing", Winnanulburu. As for Baiame, (Byamee) it meant a burul euray ('big man'), one with totem names for every part of his body, down to each finger and toe. On his departure he distributed his totem attributes to all, which they would take from their mother, so that marriage was interdicted for people with the same mother (totem). He dwelt in his sky camp with his son italics=no. He had an earthly subordinate Gayandi who was a ceremonial overseer to the mysteries of tribal initiation.
William Ridley prevailed upon an elder named italics=no (Dinoun) of the Gingi tribe, known among whites as King Rory, to recount his tribe's legends concerning the firmament. The conversation place on the evening of 10 July at Gingi. italics=no has been identified as likely an elder of the Yuwaalaraay.
Alternative names
According to Tindale:
-
Brewarrana
-
Gingi (station name over the river from Walgett)
-
Jualjai, Juwaljai, Yuwalyai
-
Wallarai, Wolleroi, Walleri, Woleroi, Wollaroi
-
Yowalri, Yuolary, Euahlayi, Yourilri, Youahlayi
-
Yualai, Yualeai, Yerraleroi
-
Yualarai, Yualloroi, Yowaleri, Uollaroi, Youallerie, Yualari
Some words
-
wirrinun ("wise folk", namely, any male or female gifted with spiritual power)
-
wongo ("no")
Some modern terms shared with Gamilaraay speakers:
-
dhimbha (sheep, perhaps from jumbuck)
-
milambaraay (milk cow, from milam, borrowed from English 'milk')
-
wamba (white man, borrowed from a Wangaaybuwan adjective meaning 'ugly-looking', referring also to a creature, the devil devil)
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
