Claim: Djanga refers to the notion that Europeans were returned spirits of the dead partially because Europeans odors were found offensive to indigenous Noongar Australian Aboriginal people, a culture that identifies as a mix of smaller towns and regional dialects.
Evidence: The notion that Europeans were returned spirits of the dead, was reported in the case of George Grey, who was recognised by one Aboriginal woman as the spirit of her dead son. The fact that Europeans seemed ignorant of Aboriginal language and culture confirmed for the Noongar that these people had somehow forgotten who they were and where they really came from, typical of the spirit of a dead person. Europeans odours were found offensive to Aboriginal people, as clothes were frequently not washed for long periods, and bathing of the British settlers was not frequent. The odours were considered similar to the odours that accompanied corpses. Djanga (or djanak or djăndga), supposedly meaning "white spirits", was the initial name given to Europeans (now more commonly called wetjala), by indigenous Noongar Australian Aboriginal people of the south west corner of Western Australia. Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands. The Noongar (/ˈnʊŋɑː/, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar, Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, Yunga) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the south coast. Esperance is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, on the Southern Ocean coastline approximately 720 kilometres (450 mi) east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. The urban population of Esperance was 12,145 at June 2018. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. The members of the collective Noongar cultural block descend from peoples who spoke several languages and dialects that were often mutually intelligible. Noongar country is the land occupied by 14 different groups: Amangu, Ballardong, Yued, Kaneang, Koreng, Mineng, Njakinjaki, Njunga, Pibelmen, Pindjarup, Wardandi, Whadjuk, Wiilman and Wudjari. At the time of European settlement it is believed that the peoples of what became the Noongar community spoke thirteen dialects, of which five still have speakers with some living knowledge of their respective versions of the language. It is generally agreed that there was no single, standard Nyungar (or Noongar) language before European settlement: it was a subgroup (or possibly a dialect continuum) of closely related languages, whose speakers were differentiated geographically (and in some cases, by cultural practices). The dialects merged into the modern Nyungar language following colonisation. A 1990 conference organised by the Nyoongar Language Project Advisory Panel recognised that the Nyungar subgroup included at least three distinct languages. This was highlighted by a 2011 Noongar Dictionary, edited by Bernard Rooney, which was based on the dialect/language of Yuat (Juat), from the north west part of the Nyungar subgroup area.