Whadjuk - Culture and Pre-history

Culture and Pre-history

Before contact, 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 length of Whadjuk settlement of this area should not be underestimated. Finds associated with this group in the Guildford region show continuous settlement going back at least 35,000 years, while stone tools recently found on Rottnest Island (Noongar: Wadjemup) have been estimated at 70,000 years old. The Whadjuk also preserved many stories of the Wagyl, a water-python held to be responsible for most of the water features around Perth.

Coastal dwelling Whadjuk have an oral tradition describing the separation of Rottnest from the mainland, which occurred between 10,000–6,000 BCE, technically a post-glacial Flandrian transgression.

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.

• Birak: November to December, was the “fruiting”, characterised by the onset of hot, easterly winds which blow during the day. Noongar people used to burn mosaic sections of scrubland through firestick farming to force animals into the open to hunt, and to open the canopy and allow the few November rains to increase germination of summer foodstuffs and marsupial grazing. This was the season of harvesting wattle seeds which were pounded into flour and stored as damper.

• Bunuru: January to February, was the “hot-dry”, characterised by hot dry easterly conditions with afternoon sea-breezes, known locally in Western Australia as the Fremantle doctor. To maximise the effects of these cooling breezes, the Noongars moved to coastal estuaries and reefs where fish and abalone (Haliotis roei) constituted a large proportion of the seasonal diet. Mallee fowl eggs from tuart forests also formed a part of the diet.

• Djeran: March to April, was “first rains-first dew”, with the weather was becoming cooler with winds from the south west. Fishing continued (often caught in fish traps) and zamia palm (Noongar = djiriji, Macrozamia ridlei) cycad nuts Noongar = buyu), (Nardoo Marsilia quadrifolia) bulbs and other seeds were collected for food. Zamia palm, which is naturally highly poisonous, was prepared in a fashion which removed its toxicity. Burrowing Frogs (kooyar, Heleioporus eyrei) were caught in large numbers with the opening rains of winter.

• Makuru: from May to June, was "the wet”, and Noongars moved inland from the coast to the Darling Scarp to hunt Yongka, grey kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus) and Tammar (Macropus eugeni) once rains had replenished inland water resources. This was the season of mid-latitude cold frontal rains. Noongar Gnow (or mallee fowl (Leipoa ocellata)) were also caught.

• Djilba: from July to August, was “the cold-wet” saw Noongar groups moving to the drier soils of the Guildford and Canning-Kelmscott areas, where roots were collected and emus (Noongar = Wej) (Dromaius novaehollandiae), ringtail possums (Noongar = Goomal) (Psudocheirus occidentalis) and kangaroo were hunted.

• Kambarang: from September to October, was “the flowering” at the height of the wildflower season. This time saw rain decreasing. Families moved towards the coast where frogs, tortoises and freshwater crayfish or gilgies (Cherax quinquecarinatus) and blue marron, (Noongar = Marrin (from Marr = hand, Cherax tenuimanus) were caught. Birds returning from their northern hemisphere migration also formed a part of their diet.

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 (Litoria moorei), in marking seasons. For example, the onset of Kambarang, or the flowering of the Western Australian Christmas Tree (Nuytsia floribunda Loranthaceae showing the onset of Bunuru.

Whadjuk used high quality wilgi (red ochre) in ceremonies, which they obtained through trade with peoples to the east. In pre-contact times it was used to colour hair, which was worn long (in a style similar to "dreadlocks"). Among inidgenous 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.