Uutaalnganu
The Uutaalnganu people (a.k.a. Kawadji, Night Island Kawadji, Mälnkänidji, Jangkonju, Yankonyu) inhabited Night Island and the coastal strip opposite it. They built and then employed double-outrigger canoes on voyages to outlying reefs to hunt for dugongs, turtles, and seabird and turtle eggs. According to Norman Tindale, they spoke Yankonyu, a dialect of the Umpila language spoken by the Umpila and Pontunj, to whom they were closely related.
The French castaway Narcisse Pelletier was taken in by the Kawadji after the wreck of the merchantman Saint Paul in 1858 and remained with them for seventeen years. Linguistic and other evidence points to the Uutaalnganu as the most likely hosts.
Kawadji also refers collectively by inland groups to refer to their neighbours to the east who occupied coastal areas east of the Great Dividing Range from Oxford Bay to Princess Charlotte Bay.
Sources:
AIATSIS AustLang Project: Y211: Uutaalnganu
The story of a French boy who was raised by Cape York mob in the 1800s
Signing of historic FNQ Native Title determination celebrated
Norman Tindale, Aboriginal Tribes of Australia, p. 175
Wikipedia: Umpila language
Wikipedia: Uutaalnganu
