TheWardaman people are a small group ofAboriginal Australians living about 145 kilometres (90 mi) South-West ofKatherine, on Menngen Aboriginal Land Trust in theNorthern Territory ofAustralia.
Wardaman is a non-Pama-Nyungan language. Though close to being amoribund language, it was, as late as the early 1990s, one of the most widely spokenAboriginal languages inKatherine, with an estimated 30 speakers and perhaps 200 or more people who could understand it if spoken.[1]
The Wardaman controlled, according toNorman Tindale, some 7,300 square kilometres (2,800 sq mi) of territory from the headwaters of the southern branches of the upperFlora River, and westwards as far as theVictoria River Depot. Their southern limits lay around Jasper Gorge. The Wardaman presence, attested in post-contact times, atDelamere is historically recent.[2]
European contact with Wardaman and related peoples like theDagoman andYangman was characterized from the outset by considerable violence. Eventually, as their tribal lands were given over to pastoral leases, the men mastered trades such as cattle-droving, while the women were employed as help.[3]
The Wardaman distinguish two types of art: those objects made by creative beings in the primordialdreamtime, calledbuwarraja, and objects made by people,bulawula.[4] The latter deals with more recent historical topics, such as events that occurred after whites occupied the country, featuring such things as guns and cattle-droving.[5]Buwarraja designs are more abstract and have an extremely ancient history, some going back at least 5,000 years.[6]
Wardaman legends of the dreamtime speak ofYagjagbula andJabirringi, the "Lightning Brothers" of theJabijin sub-section associated with the onset of thewet season, and who are represented in Wardamanrock art sacred sites, such as Yiwarlarlay.[7][a]
Yagjagbula, the younger of the two, is tall and handsome, and has a wife,Gulliridan, whileJabirringi is shorter, and somewhat plain-looking. The latter's spouse is calledGanayanda. The brothers hunt on alternate days, each bringing the day's game back to the camp. At a certain point, as he comes back from his hunting,Jabirringi overhears whispering in a rocky area, and discovers his wife copulating with his younger brother. A pitched battle between the two ensues on open ground, and, as spears and boomerangs are thrown, lightning flashes and thunderclaps roar. When a bolt of lightning cleaves the sandstone rockface at Yiwarlarlay, frogs emerge to watch, slapping their thighs rhythmically as the two fight on. Passing overen route to the Yingalarri water-hole,Wiyan, the rain, is told byGorondolni, the WardamanRainbow serpent, to halt, whereby it is transformed into the Ngalanjarri rain rock close by. Yagjagbula eventually comes out the victor, either by knocking Jabirringi's headdress off, or by decapitating him, with his boomerang. The scene depicting this primordial conflict depicts Yagjagbula as being over 4 metres high, and the figure is one of the largestanthropomorphs in the world.[9]
The Wardaman community in Katherine are concentrated in two camps, south and west of the township. One group is atBunjarri (Binjara) on the Manbulloo station about 7.5 miles from Katherine, and the other is at The Rockhole, just over 6 miles outside the town, on the Florina Highway.[10]
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