Umpila (people)
By Norman Tindale's reckoning, the Umpila people occupied around eight hundred square kilometres of country around Cape Sidmouth, extending north nearly to Night Island and south to around the Chester River with the Uutaalnganu to their north, the Kuuku-yani to the south and the Kaantju to the west. As one of the eight groups collectively known as the Kawadji, they refer to themselves as Umpila pama malngkanichi ("people of the sand beach").
They spoke one of the six North Cape York Paman dialects collectively called Umpila. Only three (Umpila proper, Kuuku Ya'u, and Kaanju) were still spoken by a handful of elderly speakers in the early 21st century. The others (Kuuku Yani, Uutaalnganu, and Kuuku Iʼyu) are extinct. They also had a well-developed signed form of their language.
After being forcibly removed from their land in the 1940s, most Umpila now live in the Lockhart River. A 2008 Federal Court decision recognised their descendants, along with those of the Uutaalnganu, as custodians of 1,200 square kilometres of their former territory.
Links to add:
Cape Sidmouth
Chester River
Kaantju
North Cape York Paman dialects
Kuuku Iʼyu
Lockhart River
