Warnman people

The Wanman were an indigenous Australian people of Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Country

The Wanman's territory extended over some 9,400 square miles (24,000 km²). Their southern boundary lay around the McKay Range and the area of Lake Disappointment.Westwards, it reached Wadurara on the Rudall River. The northern frontier lay in the vicinity of Lake Dora, Mendidjildjil and Karbardi, while they were present eastwards as far as the George, Wooloomber and Auld lakes.

Ecology

As often natural features can mark a kind of informal boundary between tribes. With the Wanman, that boundary in the south was delineated by the transition from their clumpy porcupine grassland to the thick mulga shrubland of the Kartudjara. The onset of drought would push them northwest, to around Karbardi and Pulburukuritji, and Kalamilji. Their harsh almost treeless sandhill landscape with its poor grassland constrained the Wanman to develop grass-milling in order to eke out food from seeds, one of the few Auystralian tribes, such as the Ualarai and the Pila Nguru, who resorted to this technique.

Alternative names

• Wanmanba (Mandjildjara term)
• Wanmin
• Nanidjarara (derisive term applied by others, including the Ka rtudjara; the Wanman themselves apply it to the Nangatara)
• Nenidjara, Njanidjara, Warumala (Mangala term; a general term in this part of Western Australia which has a meaning related to " foreigner" also "stranger" ).The Wanman were an indigenous Australian people of Western Australia's Pilbara region.

Alternative names

• Wanmanba. (Mandjildjara exonym)
• Wanmin.
• Nanidjarara. (contemptuous exonym used of them by the Kartudjara and others. the Wanman apply, in term, this word to the Nangatara.)
• Nenidjara.
• Njanidjara.
• Warumala (Mangala exonym, used generally in the area, with a basic sense of 'foreigner/stranger'.)

Sources

• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Wanman (WA)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Worms, E. A. (1959). "Verbannungslied eines australischen Wildbeuters. Ein Beitrag zur Lyrik der Bād". Anthropos. 54 (1/2): 154–168. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)