{{Short description|Aboriginal people of northern Australia}}{{use dmy dates|date=March 2017}} {{use Australian English|date=February 2020}} The '''Waanyi''' people, also spelt '''Wanyi''', '''Wanji''', or '''Waanji''', are an Aboriginal Australian people from south of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
==Language== {{main|Wanyi language}} Although the Waanyi language was thought to be extinct, the 2016 Australian census found it to have 16 speakers, down from the recorded peak of 40 in the 2011 Australian census.<ref name=austlang>{{cite web |title=G23: Waanyi |website=AIATSIS Collection: AUSTLANG |date=26 July 2019 |url=https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/G23 |access-date=28 September 2021 }}</ref> It is classified as one of the Garrwan languages.{{sfn|Mushin|2013|p=5}}
==Country== The Waanyi territory was in well-watered limestone and sandstone country, including parts of the Gregory River. In Norman Tindale's estimation, the Waanyi held about {{convert|9,700|mi2|km2}} of territory, extending from the vicinity of the south of the upper Nicholson River,{{sfn|Trigger|1992|p=26}} west of Corinda, and at Spring and Lawn Hill creeks. Their eastern extension lay at the Barkly (Barclay) River, Lawn Hill and Bannockburn. Their western frontier was at Old Benmara, and south-west they roamed as far as Mount Morgan.{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=237}}
They lay south of the Kunindiri{{sfn|Basedow|1907|p=3}} and Garrwa people, west of the Injilarija and Nguburinji peoples,{{sfn|Trigger|2015|p=56}} and east of the Wambaya and Wakaya peoples' lands.{{cn|date=October 2020}} They took over the land of the Injilarija, who were considered extinguished around 1880, around Lawn Hill (today part of Boodjamulla National Park).{{sfn|AMPLA Bulletin 14(2)|p=90}}
Waanyi people now co-manage the Ganalanga-Mindibirrina Indigenous Protected Area, declared in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ganalanga-Mindibirrina IPA and Waanyi Garawa and Garawa Rangers {{!}} NIAA |url=https://www.niaa.gov.au/node/2308 |access-date=2024-09-24 |website=www.niaa.gov.au |archive-date=24 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240924092253/https://www.niaa.gov.au/node/2308 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==History== The whole area of the north was affected deeply by the pastoral boom opened up in 1881 in the Northern Territory, with massive stations under the control of a few eastern investors hastily stocked with cattle: the key watering sites were locked out, tribes were shot at sight, and many groups moved east into the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the same phenomenon repeated itself. The Waanyi and the Garrwa, like many tribes local to the area that found their lands taken over for pastoral leases and resisted dispossession, found themselves threatened. The Eastern Waanyi were wiped out;{{sfn|Roberts|2005|pp=274–292,274}} settler vigilantes and police magistrates employed native mounted troopers to ambush, murder and massacre any Aboriginal groups they came across. The lessees of Gregory Downs submitted testimony in 1880 that the police rounded up blacks and then shot them, while that of Lawn Hill five years later said that on his cattle run alone police had shot over a hundred blacks in three years, without achieving their aim of stopping the killing of livestock.{{sfn|Evans|2007|p=137}} The displaced Waanyi eventually took over the territory in the Lawn Hill area of the extinct Injilarija.{{sfn|Sutton|2004|p=5}}
==Native title== {{further|Native title in Australia|Native title}} The Waanyi first lodged a native title claim over an area known to them traditionally as ''Wugujaji'' in June 1994.{{sfn|Harwood|2002|p=85}} Under a Queensland Government land act of 1989, CZL was granted two mining leases covering 23,585 hectares extending through Waanyi land the Century Mine was established on it.{{sfn|Harwood|2002|p=82}} Eventually the terms of a settlement were agreed on, and CZL paid funding, training and employment to the traditional peoples, an accord known as the $90 million offer.{{sfn|Harwood|2002|p=86}}
The Waanyi claim a right to co-manage both the Boodjamulla National Park and Riversleigh World Heritage Area, the latter holding the richest Oligocene and Miocene mammalian and reptile fossil field in the world.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=165}} In 2010, native title was granted over an area of {{cvt| 17,900|km2}} abutting the Northern Territory border, including Boodjamulla,<ref name=nwstar2021>{{cite web | last=Barry | first=Derek | title=Waanyi People win new native title battle | website=The North West Star | date=23 September 2021 | url=https://www.northweststar.com.au/story/7442013/waanyi-people-win-new-native-title-battle/ | access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref> after litigation.<ref name=nntt1>{{cite web | title=National Native Title Register Details: QCD2010/007 - Waanyi Peoples| website=National Native Title Tribunal | url=http://www.nntt.gov.au/searchRegApps/NativeTitleRegisters/Pages/NNTR_details.aspx?NNTT_Fileno=QCD2010/007 | access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref>
In 2018 a second case was brought for two areas to the west of Doomadgee, one from Turn Off Lagoon as far as the NT border, and the other close to the border of Doomadgee Shire,<ref name=nwstar2021/> and Burketown, covering {{cvt|441|km2}}.<ref name=abcnt/> Native title was formally recognised by consent by the Federal Court of Australia on 22 September 2021,<ref name=nntt2>{{cite web | title=National Native Title Register Details: QCD2021/003 - Waanyi People #2| website=National Native Title Tribunal | url=http://www.nntt.gov.au/searchRegApps/NativeTitleRegisters/Pages/NNTR_details.aspx?NNTT_Fileno=QCD2021/003 | access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref> with its timing coinciding with new funding from the Queensland Government for four Indigenous rangers to work in the Boodjamulla and the Riversleigh.<ref name=abcnt>{{cite web | last1=Willis | first1=Carli| first2=Julia|last2= André | title=Waanyi elders say new native title determination and ranger program is timely | website=ABC News| date=28 September 2021 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-28/waanyi-elders-say-new-native-title-determination-timely/100495474 | access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref><ref name=nwstar2021/>
==Notable people== * Alexis Wright, a writer of Waanyi descent whose novel Carpentaria (2006) won the prestigious Australian Miles Franklin Award{{sfn|Ravenscroft|2016|pp=59–79,76ff.}} * Charlie Cameron, Australian rules footballer<ref name="Camerons">[http://www.afc.com.au/news/2015-08-26/cameron-inspiring-hometown-students Cameron inspiring hometown students]</ref> * Jarrod Cameron, Australian rules footballer<ref name="Camerons" />
==Alternative names== * ''Waangyee'' * ''Wanee'' * ''Wanji'' * ''Wanyee'' * ''Wonyee''{{sfn|Tindale|1974|p=237}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
===Citations=== {{Reflist|20em}}
==Sources== {{refbegin|35em}} *{{Cite journal | title = Anthropological notes on the Western Coastal tribes of the Northern Territory of South Australia | last = Basedow | first = Herbert | author-link = Herbert Basedow | journal = Journal of the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia | via = BHL | year = 1907 | volume = 31 | pages = 1–62 | url = https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54644 }} *{{Cite book| title = A History of Queensland | last = Evans | first = Raymond | year = 2007 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=G60Cgsnzc7AC&pg=PA137 | isbn = 978-0-521-87692-6 }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Indigenous Sovereignty and Century Zinc | last = Harwood | first = Alison | year = 2002 | title = Moving Mountains: Communities Confront Mining and Globalization | editor1-last = Evans | editor1-first = Geoffrey Russell | editor2-last = Goodman | editor2-first = James | editor3-last = Lansbury | editor3-first = Nina | publisher = Zed Books | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Fo7Yp5Vcp1QC&pg=PA85 | pages = 159–171 | isbn = 978-1-842-77199-0 }} *{{cite journal | title = Information Service: Queensland: Extinguishment by pastoral lease | journal = AMPLA Bulletin | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | page = 90 | ref = {{harvid|AMPLA Bulletin 14(2)}} }} *{{Cite book| title = Aboriginal Dreaming Paths and Trading Routes: The Colonisation of the Australian Economic Landscape | last = Kerwin | first = Dale | year = 2011 | publisher = Sussex Academic Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NZdr_x-VNBsC&pg=PA47 | isbn = 978-1-845-19529-8 }} *{{Cite journal | title = Divisions of tribes in the Northern Territory | last = Mathews | first = R. H. | author-link = Robert Hamilton Mathews | journal = Journal of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales | via = BHL | year = 1899 | volume = 33 | pages = 111–114 | url = https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/131872 }} *{{Cite journal | title = The Wombya Organization of the Australian Aborigines | last = Mathews | first = R. 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H. | author2-link = Robert Hamilton Mathews | journal = Journal of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales | via = BHL | year = 1898 | volume = 32 | pages = 241–255 | url = https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/130745 }} *{{Cite journal | title = Semi-Moieties in North-Western Queensland | last = Sharp | first = Lauriston | author-link = Lauriston Sharp | journal = Oceania | date = December 1935 | volume = 6 | issue = 2 | pages = 158–174 | doi = 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1935.tb00178.x | jstor = 40327545 }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Empty Gestures? Heritage and the Politics of Recognition | last = Smith | first = Laurajane | year = 2008 | title = Cultural Heritage and Human Rights: Cultural heritage in a globalized world | editor1-last = Silverman | editor1-first = Helaine | editor2-last = Ruggles | editor2-first = D. Fairchild | editor2-link = D. Fairchild Ruggles | publisher = Springer | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pKN_JIP1LQgC&pg=PA167 | pages = 159–171 | isbn = 978-0-387-76579-2 }} *{{Cite book| title = Native tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia | last = Spencer | first = Baldwin | year = 1914 | author-link = Walter Baldwin Spencer | publisher = Macmillan Publishers | location = London | url = https://archive.org/download/cu31924028623076/cu31924028623076.pdf | via = Internet Archive }} *{{Cite book| title = Native Title in Australia: An Ethnographic Perspective | last = Sutton | first = Peter | year = 2004 | author-link = Peter Sutton (anthropologist) | publisher = Cambridge University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LOnTBS_jFEIC&pg=PA5 | isbn = 978-1-139-44949-6 }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Wanji (NT) | last = Tindale | first = Norman Barnett | year = 1974 | author-link = Norman Tindale | title = Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names | publisher = Australian National University | chapter-url = http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/wanji.htm | isbn = 978-0-708-10741-6 }} *{{Cite book| chapter = Change and Succession in Aboriginal Claims to Land | last = Trigger | first = David | year = 2015 | title = Strings of Connectedness: Essays in honour of Ian Keen | editor-last = Toner | editor-first = P.G. | publisher = Australian National University Press | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gc7YCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 | pages = 53–73 | isbn = 978-1-925-02263-6 }} *{{Cite book| title = Whitefella Comin': Aboriginal Responses to Colonialism in Northern Australia | last = Trigger | first = David Samuel | year = 1992 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=krsYSKnVBRUC&pg=PA26 | isbn = 978-0-521-40181-4 }} {{refend}}
==External links== *{{official|https://waanyipbc.org/our-story|Waanyi Native Title Aboriginal Corporation}}
{{Aboriginal peoples of Queensland}} {{Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory Category:Aboriginal peoples of Queensland