Kija (Aboriginal)

Kidja even Gidja , Giya and Lungga called, are a tribe of Aborigines in the territory East Kimberley in Western Australia about 200 kilometers south of the settlement Kununurra , live.

language

Gija does not belong to the Pama Nyunga language family, which covers most of the Aboriginal languages , but is part of the small Djeragan language group. The language is still spoken by 100 to 200 people.

country

The traditional territory of the Kija consisted of an estimated 32,000 km² through which the Salmond Rivers , Chamberlain Rivers and Wilson Rivers flow. The western border ran to the foothills of the Bluff Face Range . The Kija also lived and hunted on the upper Margaret River above the Ramsay Range Gorge. Their easternmost areas extended as far as Halls Creek and Alice Downs Station. Sites associated with the Kija are Macphee Creek, north of Sugarloaf Hill, the Durack Range , Lissadell and Turkey Creek Station, the Fig Tree Pool, and the headwaters of the Stony River .

history

In the late 19th century, pastoralists were fiercely opposed by Kija people, whose descendants now mostly live near places like Halls Creek and Warmun (also known as Turkey Creek ).

The Bedford Downs massacre in 1924 was the last known massacre of the Kija. According to the kija, Paddy Quilty and others took many of the tribesmen away from Bedford Station and served them strychnine- infused food. In order to remove the traces of the crime, the bodies were burned on a pyre.

Current time

In 1979, mine exploration teams discovered pink and reddish diamonds at Smoke Creek and Barramundi Gap , which were quite rare at the time. The places were of great importance for the dream time of Kija women. Despite this, the Argyle diamond mine , one of the great diamond mines in Australia, was created. Local employment at the mine remained low at 10% in 2003. As a result, the mine changed its attitude and now a quarter of the workforce is being recruited from the indigenous people.

Qantas

The Boeing 737 with the Aboriginal artwork

The Australian airline Qantas was inspired by the artwork “Medicine Pocket” by Aboriginal artist Paddy Bedfords and painted a Boeing 737 in their fleet with the so-called “Mendoowoorrji” from Bedford.

Culture

The Kija cultivate their culture, collect their own indigenous works of art and give art classes to their descendants.

Famous pepole

• Paddy Bedford (1922-2007), painter
• Josie Farrer, Australian MP. Member of Parliament of Western Australia since 2013, representative of Kimberley Headquarters.
• Stacy Mader, the first Australian Native to graduate in astronomy.
• Lena Nyadbi, Kija artist whose works have been exhibited on a Barramundi scale in Paris, located on the roof of the Musée du quai Branly and only visible from the Eiffel Tower . The work was commissioned by the museum. Nyadbis Design represents the dream story of the creation Barramundi , who evades capture and throws his scales over the landscape. The scales are metaphors for the pink Argyle diamonds that are now being mined on Giya land by the Rio Tinto Group , a British-Australian mining company. By positioning it on the roof, Nyadbi wanted the Barramundi to be ready to return to the Seine .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norman Tindale: Tindale Tribal Boundaries , 1974. Ed. By the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (Western Australia)
2. ^ Robyn Ferrell: Sacred Exchanges: Images in Global Context . Edited by Columbia University Press. Online on Google Books . ISBN 978-0-231-14880-1
3. ↑ Kim Doohan: Making Things Come Good: Relations Between Aborigines and Miners at Argyle . Online on Google Books . Backroom Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-977-56153-7