Whadjuk
Whadjuk, alternatively Witjari, are a Noongar (Aboriginal Australian) people of the Western Australian region of the Perth bioregion of the Swan Coastal Plain. Name. The ethnonym appears to derive from "whad", their word for "no". Country. The traditional tribal territory of the Whadjuk, in Norman Tindale's estimate, took in some of land, from the Swan River, together with its eastern and northern tributaries. Its hinterland extension ran to Mount Helena and a little beyond. It included Kalamunda on the Darling Scarp and Armadale. It encompassed the Victoria Plains to the north, the area south of Toodyay and reached  eastwards as far as York and a little beyond. Its southern coastal frontier extended to the vicinity of Pinjarra. Their northern neighbours were the Yued, the Balardong people lay to their east, and the Pindjarup on their southern coastal flank. Culture and pre-history. The Whadjuk formed part of the Noongar language group, with their own distinctive dialect. Culturally they were divided into two matrilineal moieties: "Wardungmaat", from "wardung" ("crow", that is, the Australian raven, "Corvus coronoides") and "maat" ("lineage"; literally "leg") and; "Manitjmaat", from "manitj" ("sulphur-crested cockatoo, "Cacatua galerita" ") and "maat". Moieties were endogamous, and children took the  moiety of their mother. Each moiety also contained two "sections" (or "skins"): in the case of the "Manitjmaat" these were "Ballarok" and "Tondarup" and for the "Wardungmaat", they were "Ngotak" and "Naganyuk". The Whadjuk also preserved many stories of the Wagyl, a water-python held to be responsible for most of the water features around Perth. This may have been a cultural memory of an extinct Madtsoiidae python-like serpent, a water dwelling ambush predator, part of the extinct megafauna of Australia that disappeared between 40,000 and 20,000 years ago. Coastal dwelling Whadjuk have an oral tradition describing the separation  of Rottnest from the mainland, which occurred between 12,000 and 8,000 BCE, technically a post-glacial Flandrian transgression. Seasonal divisions. Like other Noongar peoples, the Whadjuk seem to have moved more inland in the wetter weather of winter, returning to the coast as interior seasonal lakes dried up. The Whadjuk, like many Noongar people, divided the year into six seasons. These seasons were roughly divided (rather than by specific date) and Whadjuk took account of environmental signals such as the spring call of the motorbike frog (green tree frog ()), in marking seasons. For example, the onset of Kambarang, or the  flowering of the Western Australian Christmas tree ("Nuytsia floribunda" showing the onset of Bunuru. Ceremonies. Whadjuk used high quality "wilgi" (red ochre) in ceremonies, which they obtained from the site now occupied by Perth Railway Station and which they traded with peoples to the east. By repute it was traded as far as Uluru. Prior to the colonisation it was used to colour hair, which was worn long (in a style similar to dreadlocks). Among indigenous groups that practised initiatory circumcision, the territory of the Whadjuk was known as "The Land of the Boys". Quartz from the Darling Scarp was  also traded with Balardong groups for the making of spears. Contact history. The Whadjuk peoples bore the brunt of the European invasion and colonisation, as the cities of Perth and Fremantle were built in their territory. No doubt Whadjuk peoples had been familiar with Dutch explorers like Vlamingh, and the occasional visit of whalers to the coast, before the arrival of settlers under the command of Governor James Stirling. After a near disaster at Garden Island, a long-boat under the command of Captain (later Lieutenant Governor) Irwin was dispatched and met with Yellagonga and his family at Crawley, on  the coast of what is now the University of Western Australia or by Mount Eliza (). As Aboriginal women had been earlier seized by European seal hunters, Yellagonga subsequently moved his encampment to what is now Lake Monger (). With the alienation from their lands due to settlers claiming land and fencing it off, Aboriginal people lost access to important seasonal foods, they did not understand or accept private ownership of their lands, which led to spearing of stock and digging in food gardens. Reprisals led to a cycle of increased violence on both sides. The first attempted Aboriginal massacre was the  Battle for Perth when there was an attempt to surround and capture Aboriginal people who had retreated into Lake Monger. The area was cordoned, but the hunted people escaped. Once Lake Monger was settled by the Monger family, Yellagonga moved to Lake Joondalup. In 1834 this Wanneroo area was explored by John Butler, and in 1838 by George Grey. With the lands seized for settlement in 1843, Yellagonga was reduced to begging for survival, and shortly thereafter he accidentally drowned. The situation for Midgegooroo was even more precarious. Violence flared when it was said 200 "savages" were going to attack  the ferry from Fremantle, and citizens armed themselves and rushed to the site to find nothing but a bemused ferryman. A Tasmanian settler shot one of the local Aboriginal men and Yagan, Midgegooroo's son and Yellagonga's nephew, speared a white in revenge. Yagan was arrested and sent to Carnac Island in the care of Robert Lyon who claimed he was a freedom fighter. Yagan escaped from the island in a boat, and waged a guerrilla campaign on both sides of the river. He was eventually killed by one of two European boys he had befriended and his head  was smoked and sent to England, finally being recovered and returned home by Ken Colbung in 1997. Following the Pinjarra massacre, Whadjuk Aboriginal people became totally dispirited, and were reduced to dependent status, settling at their site at Mount Eliza for handouts under the authority of Francis Armstrong. An Anglican school was established for a number of years at Ellenbrook, but was never very successful and was greatly underfunded. Relations between the settlers and the Noongar people had deteriorated badly in the final years of Stirling's reign, with settlers shooting at Aboriginal people indiscriminately for the spearing of stock , leading to payback killings of settlers. Stirling's response was to attempt to subdue the Aboriginal people through harsh punishment. When Stirling retired he was replaced as Governor by John Hutt, 1 January 1839, who rather than adopting Stirling's vindictive vengeful policies against Aborigines, tried protecting their rights and educating them. This ran foul of frontier settlers intent on seizing Aboriginal lands without compensation, who felt they needed strong-arm tactics to protect themselves from Aboriginal "reprisals". In 1887 an Aboriginal reserve for the remaining Whadjuk people was established near Lake Gnangara, one of a whole series of wetlands  which may have, within the memory of Aboriginal people here, been a series of caves along an underground river whose roof fell in. This reserve was re-established in 1975. In addition to the "feeding station" at Mount Eliza, under the control of Francis Armstrong, first "Protector of Aborigines". Hutt also tried to establish an Aboriginal yeomanry by giving Aboriginal "settlers" grants of government land. The lands chosen for this venture were marginal and Aboriginal people were expected to make improvements without giving them access to needed bank finance, so the scheme quickly collapsed. Aboriginal campsites were temporarily established at  many metropolitan locations including Ellenbrook, Jolimont, Welshpool and Allawah Grove. These sites however were frequently moved at the discretion of European authorities once an alternative use was found for the land (as happened at Karrakatta Cemetery, the Swanbourne Rifle Range and Perth Airport). In 1893 the granting of self-government to Western Australia, specifically excluded provision for Aboriginal Affairs, which remained vested in the British crown. The state's constitution also stated that 1% of government expenditures had to be for the benefit of Aboriginal people, a condition that has never been met. The Premier John Forrest unilaterally took control  in Aboriginal Affairs, without an amendment to the constitution in 1896. As of 2016, Aboriginal people number 3% of the state's population, but number 50% of the women in Bandyup Women's Prison and of youth in detention in Western Australia. Many are imprisoned for the non-payment of fines incurred for minor offences. The number of Noongar youth in incarceration exceeds the number in school or formal training. Daisy Bates claimed she interviewed the last fully initiated Whadjuk Noongar people in 1907, reporting on informants Fanny Balbel and Joobaitj, who had preserved in oral tradition the Aboriginal viewpoints  of the coming of the Europeans. Fanny had been born on the Aboriginal sacred site that underlies St George's Cathedral, while Joobaitj's sacred lands were near the current youth hostel at Mundaring Weir. Social structure. The Whadjuk people were divided by the Swan and Canning Rivers into four residence groups, each with its own territory: Several Europeans in particular contributed to modern understanding of Whadjuk Noongar language and culture. European settlers were initially called "Djanga" – a term referring to spirits of the dead – by the Whadjuk. This belief incorporated Europeans into the social structure of the Noongar peoples  and was reinforced by several factors. To the Whadjuk, the settlers resembled dead people because they: Work by Neville Green in his book "Broken Spears" has shown how Aboriginal culture could not explain the high death rates associated with European infections, and believed that Aboriginal sorcery was involved, leading to rising numbers of reprisal spearing and killings within the Aboriginal community. Coupled with the declining birth rates, these factors led to a collapsing population in those areas nearby European settlement. In addition to white killings and massacres in Fremantle and elsewhere, the arrival of Europeans saw many deaths from diseases  to which Aboriginal people had no resistance. These were interpreted as sorcery within traditional culture and led to "pay-back" vendettas, which increased mortality of those in closest contact with Europeans. Source: Some words. Source: