Jawoyn

"Jawin" redirects here. For the village in Iran, see Jawin, Iran.

The Jawoyn, also written Djauan, are an Australian Aboriginal people living in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Bagala clan are of the Jawoyn people.

Language

Jawoyn, known as Kumertuo, is a non-Pama–Nyungan language that belongs to the Macro-Gunwinyguan group of languages of Arnhem land. (It has recently been established that the Gunwinyguan and Pama-Nyungan languages are both branches of a proto-Macro-Pama–Nyungan language.) At one time, Kumertuo was a group of several closely related spoken dialects, but since resettlement in the post-war period, these dialects have been tending to converge into a single standardized language.

Country

Map showing the traditional lands of the Aboriginal tribes in the Roper River area of Northern Territory, Australia

. Historically, the land occupied by the Jawoyn, which Norman Tindale has estimated covered about 3,800 square miles (9,800 km²), were in the Katherine Gorge area in the Northern Territory. The Jawoyn call this area Nitmiluk, a name derived from the word nitmi (which refers to the cicada song that Nabilil the crocodile is said to have heard when he set up camp at the entrance to a particular gorge) and the word luk, which means "place". “Nitmiluk” specifically denotes a 12 kilometre stretch there, consisting of a spectacular chain of chasms and ravines. It has been suggested that the Jawoyn people refers not only to those who speak a Jawoyn language, but also to those who are associated with the landscapes inscribed in the Jawoyn language according to their foundational mythology of the Dreamtime. The language itself, in several varieties was spoken along the Katherine River system as far as the Mainoru River. Their southern limits were around Maranboy, and their western extension came close to Katherine.

Mythology

Further information: Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology and Australian Aboriginal culture

A widespread belief in Aboriginal thought holds that each language emerged during the formative time of creation when a demiurgic totem figure moved through the landscape crafting it and, simultaneously, endowing each topological feature with its proper word. The creative being changed the language at certain transit points which then were taken as boundary markers between tribes speaking different languages. Thus, in Jawoyn thinking, the landscape of the Katherine Gorge was created in the primordial time (burr) by Nabilil (Crocodile), who named all of the area's distinctive features in the Jawoyn language. He came from the sea, furnished with his firestick (meya) and moved through what became Dagoman and Nangiomeri lands before reaching the gorge.

The Burr Dreamtime also contains other key figures of myth such as Boolong (the Rainbow Serpent) and Barraya (the kookaburra).

History of contact

Many Jawoyn moved to Tandandjal on the ridge affording spring water of a grassy plain 44 miles east-north of Maranboy in November 1948 when a short-lived government settlement for Aborigines had been established. The surrounding hills were thickly forested with lancewoods and eucalypts. While exploring the area in June of that year, 1948, Mr. Ivan Frazer came across a cave littered with stone artifacts, whose walls were adorned with paintings.

Notable people and events

• John Ah Kit
• Ngaree Ah Kit

Bangardi Robert Lee (1952–2005), a leader of the Bagala clan, initiated the Barunga Sport and Cultural Festival in 1985. It became an important forum for sharing ideas, showcasing the Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander cultures and talent, and to engage with social and political issues. At the 1988 event, the Jaowyn council met with representatives of the Northern and Central Land Councils, Galarrwuy Yunupingu AM and Wenten Rubuntja AM, and the Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Minister for Indigenous Affairs. At the event, Yunupingu and Rubuntja presented Hawke with the Barunga Statement, which asserted the rights of the Indigenous owner-occupiers of Australia.

Seasons

Jawoyn seasonal calendar

Jiorrk	Bungarung	Jungalk	Malaparr	Worrwopmi	Wakaringding
January February	March April May		June July August	September October	November December
Main part of wet rains	Last rains	Early hot dry	Middle dry	Early build-up	The build-up
	Drying out		Cooler	Hot and sticky	First rains
			Burning time

Alternative names

• Adowen
• Charmong
• Chau-an
• Djauun
• Djauwung
• Djawin
• Djawun
• Djouan
• Jawan, Jawony, Kumertuo, according to Ethnologue
• Jawin
• Tjauen
• Tweinbol

Some words

• Bobo. "Goodbye"
• Yowoyn. "Yes", "alright"

Source: Language 2016

See also

• Edith Falls
• Nitmiluk National Park

Sources

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